*.*>« 




Book __l 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 






PROSE WRITINGS OF BAYARD TAt&>& 

REVISED EDITION. 
NORTHERN TRAVEL: NORWAY, I APLAND, etc 




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Cu-r^L /zuspcr* 



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Northern Travel 



SUMMER AND WINTER PICTURES 



SWEDEN, DENMARK AND LAPLAND 



BY 



BAYARD TAYLOR 







NEW YORK 
P. PUTNAM'S SONS 

27 & 29 WEST 23D STREET 
I883 



Ta- 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

G. P. PUTNAM, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



Copyright by 
MARIE TAYLOR 

1882 



PREFACE. 



This book requires no further words of introduction than 
those with which I have prefaced former \olumes — that my 
object in travel is neither scientific, statistical, nor politico- 
economical ; but simply artistic, pictorial, — if possible, 
panoramic. I have attempted to draw, with a hand which, 
I hope, has acquired a little steadiness from long practice, 
the people and the scenery of Northern Europe, to colour 
my sketches with the tints of the originals, and to invest 
each one with its native and characteristic atmosphere. In 
order to do this, I have adopted, as in other countries, a 
simple rule : to live, as near as possible, the life of the peo- 
ple among whom I travel. The history of Sweden and 
Norway, their forms of Government, commerce, productive 
industry, political condition, geology, botany, and agricul- 
ture, can be found in other works, and I have only touched 
upon such subjects where it was necessary to give complete 



1 



VI PREFACE. 

ness to my pictures. I have endeavoured to give photo 
graphs, instead of diagrams, or tables of figures ; and desire 
only that the untravelled reader, who is interested in the 
countries I visit, may find that he is able to see them by 
the aid of my eyes. 

Bayari, Taylor. 
Londos: November, 1867. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER L 

A WINTER VOYAGE ON THE BALTIC. 

Embarking at Ltibeck — Put into a Hut — The Company on Board- 
Night on the Baltic — Ystad — A Life Lost — Stopped by Ice — A Gale— 
The Swedish Coast — Arrival at Dalaro — Conscientious Custoni-House 
Officer. ....... Page 13 

CHAPTER IL 

STOCKHOLM — PREPARATIONS FOR THE NORTH. 

Departure in Sleds — A Meteor — Winter Scenery — Swedish Post-Stations 
— View of Stockholm — Arrival — Stockholm "Weather — Swedish Ignor- 
ance of the North — Funds — Equipment. . . . .21 

CHAPTER ILL 

FIRST EXPERIENCES OF NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

& Swedish Diligence — Aspect of the Country — Upsala — A Fellow-Pas- 
senger — The Northern Gods — Scenery — Churches — Peasant's Houses 
— Arrival at Gefle — FOrbud Papers — Speaking Swedish — Daylight at 
Gefle — A Cold Italian — Experience of Skjuts and Fdrbud — We reach 
Snow — Night Travel — An Arabic Landlord — A Midnight Chase- 
Quarters at Bro — The Second Day — We reach SundsvalL . 2fl 



(fill CONTENTS 

CHAPTER IV. 

A SLEIGH RIDE THROUGH NORRLAND. 

Sundsvall and the Norrlanders — Purchase Sleighs — Start again — Driving 
on the Ice — Breakfast at Fjal — Twilight Hymn — Angermannland — A 
Bleak Day — Scenery of Norrland — Postillions — Increase of Cold — Dark 
Travel — The Norrland People — The Country and its Products — North- 
ern Thanks — Uraea — The Inn at Innertafle. . Page 3S 

CHAPTER V. 

PROGRESS NORTHWARD— A STORM. 

Christmas Temperature — First Experience of intense Cold — Phenomena 
thereof— Arctic Travel — Splendour of the Scenery — The Northern 
Nature — Gross Appetites — My Nose and the Mercury Frozen — Dreary 
Travel — Skelleftea, and its Temple — A Winter Storm — The Landlady 
at Abyn — Ploughing out — Travelling in a Tempest — Reach Pitea. 50 

CHAPTER VI. 

JOURNEY FROM PITEA TO HAPARANDA. 

Torment — Under the Aurora Borealis — A Dismal Night — Around the 
Bothnian Gulf — Forest Scenery — Mansbyn — The Suspicious Iron- 
Master — Brother Horton and the Cold — A Trial of Languages — An- 
other Storm — New Year's Day — Entrance into Finland — The Finns — 
Haparanda. ........ 62 

CHAPTER VH. 

CROSSING THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 

Medical Treatment — The Kind Fredrika — Morals in the North — Our 
Quarters at Haparanda — Vain Questions — Start for Lapland — Arctic 
Daylight — Campbell's Tome& — A Finnish Inn — Colours of the Arctic 
Sky — Approach to Avasaxa — Crossing the Arctic Circle — An After 
noon Sunset — Reception at Juoxengi. . • . 7< 



CONTENTS. Ja 

CHAPTER VLLL 

ADVENTURES AMONG THE FINNS. 

"ourney up the Tornea — Wonders of the Winter Woods — Lapps and 
Reindeer — My Finnish Vocabulary — A Night Journey — Reception at 
Kengis — Continue the Journey — Finnish Sleds — A Hard Day — The 
Inn at Jokijalka — Its Inmates — Life in a Finnish Hut — An Arctic 
Picture — A Frozen Country — Kihlangi — A Polar Night — Parkajoki — 
We reach Muoniovara. • • • Page 83 

CHAPTER IX. 

LIFE IN LAPLAND. 

Reception at Muoniovara — Mr. Wolley — Our Lapland Home — A Fin 
nish Bath — Send for Reindeer — A Finnish House — Stables — The 
Reindeer Pulk — My first Attempt at driving Reindeer — Failure and 
Success — Muonioniska — View from the Hill — Fears of an old Finn — 
The Discovery of America — A Lapp Witch — Reindeer Accident. 98 

CHAPTER X. 

A REINDEER JOURNEY ACROSS LAPLAND. 

Preparations for the Journey — Departure — A lazy Deer — " Long Isaac" 
— An Auroral Spectacle — A Night at Palajoki — The Table-Land of 
Lapland — Sagacity of the Deer — Driving a wild Reindeer — Polar 
Poetry — Lippajarvi — Picture of a Lapp — The Night — A Phantom 
Journey — The Track lost — A Lapp Encampment — Two Hours in a 
Lapp Tent — We start again — Descent into Norway — Heavy Travel — 
Lapp Hut in Siepe — A Fractious Reindeer — Drive to Kautokeino. 101 

CHAPTER XI 

KAUTOKEINO — A DAY WITHOUT A SUN 

Tapland Etiquette — The Inn — Quarters at the Lansman s — Situation oi 
Kautokeino — Climate — Life — Habits of the Population — Approach oi 
Sunrise — Church Service in Lapland — Cold Religion — Noonday with- 
©•»t Sunrise — The North and the South — A Vision — Visits of the Lapps 



X CONTENTS. 

— Lars Kaino — A Field for Portrait-painting — C haracter of the Lapp 
Race — Their present Condition — The religious Outbreak at Kauto 
keino — Pastor Hvoslef— A Piano in Lapland — The Schools — Visit to 
a Gamme. ... . Page 126 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE RETURN TO MUONIOVARA. 

Advantages of Lapp Costume — Turning Southward — Departure from 
Kautokeino — A Lapp Hut — Religion — The Reindeer — Their Qualities 
— Treatment by the Lapps — Annoyances of Reindeer Travel — Endur- 
ance of Northern Girls— The Table-Land— The " Roof of the World" 
— Journey to Lippajarvi — Descent to the Muonio — Female Curiosity 
— The Return to Muoniovara — Prosaic Life of the Lapps — Modern 
Prudery. . . . ,141 

CHAPTER Xni. 

ABOUT THE FINNS. 

CJhange of Plans — Winter in Lapland — The Finns — Their Physical Ap 
pearance — Character — Drunkenness — A Spiritual Epidemic — Morality 
— Contradictory Customs — Family Names and Traditions — Apathy of 
Northern Life — The Polar Zone — Good Qualities of the Race — An 
English Naturalist. ...... 154 

CHAPTER XIV. 

EXPERIENCES OF ARCTIC WEATHER. 

Departure from Muoniovara— 50° below Zero— A terrible Day— An 
Arctic Night — Jokijalka again— Travelling down the Tomea — A Night 
at Kardis— Increase of Daylight— Juoxengi— A Struggle for Life- 
Difficulty of keeping awake — Frozen Noses — The Norseman's Hell— 

Freezing Travellers — Full Daylight again — Safe Arrival at Hapar 

anda— Comfort— The Doctor's Welcome — Drive to Tornea— The 
| Weather. . 164 

CHAPTER XV. 

INCIDENTS OF THE RETURN JOURNEY. 

Mild Weather '—Miraculous Scenery— Nasby— Swedish Honesty-- A3- 



CONTENTS XJ 

ventures at Lulea — Northern Sleds — Pitea — Accident at Skelleftea — 
The Norrland Climate — A damp Swede — Travelling in a Tempest — A 
Norrland Inn — Character of the People — Their Houses, Page 175 

CHAPTEK XVI. 

CONCLUSION OF THE ARCTIC TRIP. 

Warmth and Daylight — Swedish Linen — The Northern Women- Pro 
gress Southward — Quarrel with a Postillion — A Model Village — Rough 
Roads — Scarcity of Snow — Arrival at Stockholm — Remarks on Arctic 
Travel — Scale of Temperature — Record of Cold, . . 18? 

CHAPTER XVLL 

LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 

Stockholm — Its Position and Appearance — The Streets and Houses — 

Manner of Living — Swedish Diet — Stockholm in Spring — Swedish 

Gymnastics — A Grotesque Spectacle — Results of Gymnastics — Ling's 

System — The Swedish Language — Character of the Prose and Poetry 

-Songs — Life in Stockholm. • • • • 197 

CHAPTER XVLU. 

MANNERS AND MORALS OF STOCKHOLM. 

Hospitality of the Swedes — Northern Frenchmen — Stockholm Manners 
— Dress — Conventionalism — Taking off the Hat — Courtesy of the 
Swedish — An Anecdote — King Oscar — The Royal Family — Tendency 
to Detraction — The King's Illness — Morals of Stockholm — Illegitimate 
Births — Sham Morality — Causes of Immorality — Drunkenness — An 
Incident ..♦...-. 210 

CHAPTER XLX. 

JOURNEY TO GOTTENBURG AND COPENHAGEN. 

Appearance of Spring — Departure from Stockholm — The Gotha Canal- 
Vreta Kloster — Scenery of the Wener — European Ideas concerning 
America — A Democratic Nobleman — The Gotha River — Gottenburg- 



Xii CONTENTS. 

The Giant's Pots —The Cattegat — Elsinore — The Sound Dues — Copen 
hagen and its Inhabitants — Thorwaldsen — Interview with Hans 
Christian Andersen — Goldschmidt — Prof. Eafn. . . Page 229 

CHAPTER XX. 

RETURN TO THE NORTH.— CHRISTIANIA. 

fTisit to Germany and England — The Steamer at Hull — The North Sea 
—Fellow-Passengers — Christiansand — The Coast of Norway — Arrival 
at Christiania — Preparations for Travelling — The Carriole — Progress of 
Christiania — Beauty of its Environs. .... 235 

CHAPTER XXI. 

INCIDENTS OP CARRIOLE TRAVEL. 

Disinterested Advice — Departure — Alarm — Descending the Hills — The 
Shyds System — Krogkleven — The Bang's View — Country and Country 
People — Summer Scenery — The Randsfjord — A Cow-Whale — The 
Miosen Lake — More than we bargained for — Astonishing Kindness— 
The Lake from a Steamer. . . . • . 242 

CHAPTER XXH. 

GULDBRANDSDAL AND THE DOVRE PJELD. 

Lillehammer— A Sabbath Morning — A Picture of Dahi — Guldbrandsdel 
— Annoyances of Norwegian Travel — The Lougen River — Cataracts — 
The Station at Viik — Sinclair's Defeat — Pass of the Rusten — The 
Upper Valley — Scenery of the Dovre Fjeld — Solitude of the Mountains 
— Jerkin — Summit of the Fjeld — Nature in the North — Defile of the 
Driv —A Silent Country — Valley of the Orkla — Park Scenery — A Cun- 
ning Hostess — Solidity of Norwegian Women. . 254 

CHAPTER XXTIL 

DRONTHEIM— VOYAGE UP THE COAST OF NORWAY. 

Panorama of Drontheim — Its Streets and Houses — Quarters at the Hotel 
—Protestant High Mass — Norwegian Steamers — Parting View oi 



CONTENTS. XJil 

— Drontheiin — The Namsen Fjord — Settlements on the Coast — The 
Rock of Torghatten — The Seven Sisters — Singular Coast Scenery — The 
Horseman — Crossing the Arctic Circle — Coasting Craft — Bodd — An 
Arctic Sunset. ...... Page 269 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE LOFODEN ISLES. 

Habits of the Arctic Summer — The Lofoden Islands — Moskoe — The 
Myth of the Maelstrom — The Lofoden Fishermen — Improvement in 
the People — Lofoden Scenery — The Rasksund — Disappearance of Day- 
light — Character of the Scenery — Tromsoe at Midnight Page 281 

CHAPTER XXV. 

FINNARK AND HAMMERFEST. 

Visit to the Lapps — Scenery of Tromsdal — Phenomena of the Arctic 
Summer — The Lapp Gammes — A Herd of Reindeer — The Midnight 
Sun and its Effect — Scenery of the Alten Fjord — Pastor Hvoslef— Mr. 
Thomas and his Home — Altengaard — A Polar Bishop — An Excited 
Discussion — Whales — Appearance of Hammerfest — Fishy Quartern. 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 

Plans of Travellers — Ship for the Varanger Fjord — Scenery of Magerda 
— Miraculous Provision for human Life — Fisheries on the Coast — The 
Porsanger Fjord — Coast Scenery — Svserholtkluh — Rousing the Sea 
Gulls — Picture of the Midnight Sun — Loss of a Night — The Church of 
the Lapps — Wonderful Rock-painting — Nordkyn. . • 300 

CHAPTER XXVH. 

THE VARANGER FJORD— ARCTIC LIFE. 

fhe Tana Fjord — Another Midnight — Desolation — Arctic Life — The 
Varanger Fjord — The Fort of Vardohuus — Arrival at Vadso — Summei 
there — More of the Lapps — Climate and Delights of Living — RicA 
B 



XIV CONTENTS. 

Fishing — Jolly young Englishmen — Daylight Life- • Its Effects, phy 
sical and Moral — Trees of Hammerfest — An astronomical Monument 

Pago 31C 

CHAPTER XXVIH. 

THE RETURN TO DARKNESS— NORWEGIAN CHARACTER. 

Splendour of the Northern Coast Scenery — Growth of Vegetation — Gov 
eminent of the Lapps — Pastor Lamers and his Secession — Religion 
in the North — An intelligent Clergyman — Discussions on Board — Star- 
light and Lamp-light — Character of the Norwegians — Their national 
Vanity — Jealousy of Sweden. 321 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

DRONTHEIM AND BERGEN. 

trouble at Drontheim — Valley of the Nid — The Lierfoss — Picture of 
Christiansund — Molde and Romsdal — The Vikings and their Descend- 
ants — The Rock of Hornelen — Rainy Bergen — A Group of Lepers — 
Norwegian Filth — Licentiousness — Picture of Bergen — Its Streets — 
Drunkenness — Days of Sunshine — Home-sick for Hammerfest — The 
Museum — Delays and dear Charges. . 330 



CHAPTER XXX. 

A TRD? TO THE VoRING-FOSS. 

Parting View of Bergen — Lovely Scenery — Interested Kindness — The 
Roads of Norway — Uncomfortable Quarters — Voyage on the Oster 
fjord — Bolstadoren— Swindling Postillions — Arrival at Vossevangen — 
Morning Scenery — Agriculture in Norway — Destruction of the Forests 
—Descent to Vasenden — A Captain on Leave — Crossing the Fjeld— 
The Shores of Ulvik — Hardanger Scenery — Angling and Anglers — 
— Pedar Halstensen — National Song of Norway — Ssebo — A stupendous 
Defile — Ascent of the FJeld — Plateau of the Hardanger — The Voring- 
Foss — Its Grandeur — A Sseter Hut — Wonderful Wine. 341 



CONTENTS. X^ 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

SKETCHES FROM THE BERGENSTIFT. 

feeler's Embarrassment — His Drowning — The Landlady — Morning at 
Ulvik — A Norwegian Girl — Female Ugliness — Ketum to Vossevangen 
— Indolence — Detention at Stalheiru — Scenery of the Naeroial — Pos 
tillions — On the Gudvangen Fjord — The Sogne Fjord — Transparency 
of the Water — The Boatmen. .... Page 359 

CHAPTER XXXH. 

HALLINGDAL — THE COUNTRY-PEOPLE OF NORWAY. 

Roads to Christiania — Southern Sunshine — Saltenaaset — The Church of 
Borgund — Top of the Fille Fjeld — Natives on Sunday — Peculiar Fe- 
male Costume — Scarcity of Milk and Water — The Peak of Saaten — A 
Breakfast at Ekre — Hallingdal — Wages of Labourers — Valley Scenery 
—How Ftirbuds are sent— -General Swindling — Character of the Nor- 
wegians for Honesty — Illustrations — Immorality — A " Cutty Sark"— 
Charms of Green. ..... 370 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

TELLEMARK AXI) THE RIUKAN-FOSS. 

The Silver Mines of Kongsberg — Roads in Tellemark — Bargaining for 
Horses — The Inn at Bolkesjo — Sleeping Admonitions — Smashing 
Travel — Tinoset — The Tind Lake — A Norwegian Farm-House — The 
Westfjord-dal and its Scenery— Ole Torgensen's Daughter — The Val- 
ley — A Leper — Defile of the Maan Elv — Picture of the Riukan-Foss — 
Its Beauty — A Twilight View — Supper at Ole's — The Comprehension 
of Man — A singular Ravine — Hitterdal — How respectable People live 
—The old Church— Return to Christiania. . . 383 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

NORWAY AND SWEDEN. 

Norwegian Honesty — The Country People — Illicit Connections — Th* 
Icelandic Language — Professor Munck — The Storthing — The Norwe 



XY1 CONTENTS. 

gian Constitution — The Farmer-State — C Dnversation between a Ger 
man Author and a Swedish Statesman — Gottenburg — A Fire^-Swedisb 
Honesty and Courtesy—The Falls of Trollhatten. . Page 39S 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

A TRAMP THROUGH WERMELAND AND DALECARLIA- 

Our Route— Leaving Carlstad — The Scenery — Valley of the Klar Elv • 
Ohlsater — Wedding Arches — Asplund — A Night Journey — Adven- 
tures in search of a Bed — Entrance into Dalecarlia — The Farmers at 
Tyngsjo — Journey through the Woods — The People at Westerdal — 
The Landlord at Ragsveden — The Landlady — Dalecarlian Morality— 
A Lasare — The Postillion — Poverty — A Dalecarlian Boy — Reception 
at Kettbo — Nocturnal Conversation — Little Pehr — The female Postil- 
lion — The Lttsare in Dalecarlia — View of Mora Valley. . 407 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 

LAST DAYS IN THE NORTH. 

Mora Scenery — " The Parsonage of Mora" The Magister — Peasants 
from Upper Elfdal — Scenery of the Siljan — Hymns on Board — Opiiv 
ions of the Lasare — Their Increase — Conversation with the Peasants 
— Leksand — The Domprost Hvasser — Walk in the Garden — Dalecar 
lian Songs — Rainy Travel — Fahlun — Journey to Upsala — The Cholera 
— The Mound of Odin — Skal to the Gods — The End of Summer hi 
Stockholm— Farewell to the North. .... 43R 






NORTHERN TRAVEL, 



CHAPTER I. 

A WINTER VOYAGE ON THE BALTIC. 

We went on board the little iron Swedish propeller. Carl 
/oka??, at Lubeck, on the morning of December 1, a.d, 
1.856 ; having previously taken our passage for Stockholm 
What was our dismay, after climbing over hills of freight 
on deck, and creeping down a narrow companion-way, to find 
the cabin stowed full of bales of wool and barrels of butter. 
There was a little pantry adjoining it, with a friendly 
stewardess therein, who, in answer to my inquiries, assured 
us that we would probably be placed in a hat. After fur- 
ther search, I found the captain, who was superintending the 
loading of more freight, and who also stated that he would 
put us into a hut. " Let me see the hut, then," I demanded, 
aid we were a little relieved when we found it to be a state- 
room, containing two of the narrowest of bunks. There 
was another hut opposite, occupied by two more passengers, 
2 



14 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

all that the steamer could carry and all we had, except a 
short deck-passenger, who disappeared at the commencement 
of the voyage, and was not seen again until its close. 

The day was clear and cold, the low hills around Lubeck 
were covered with snow, and the Trave was already frozen 
over. We left at noon, slowly breaking our way down the 
narrow and winding river, which gradually widened and | 
became clearer of ice as we approached the Baltic. When 
we reached TravemCnde it was snowing fast, and a murky 
chaos beyond the sandy bar concealed the Baltic. The.^ 
town is a long row of houses fronting the water. Thedre 
were few inhabitants to be seen, for the bathing guests4iad 
long since flown, and all watering places have a funereal air 
after the season is over. Our fellow-passenger, a jovial 
Pole, insisted on going ashore to drink a last glass df Bava- 
rian beer before leaving Germany; but the beverage had 
Deen so rarely called for that it had grown sharp and sour, 
and we hurried back unsatisfied. 

A space about six feet square had been cleared out among 
the butter-kegs in the cabin, and we sat down to dinner by 
candle-light, at three o'clock. Swedish customs already 
appeared, in a preliminary decanter of lemon-colored brandy 
a thimbleful of which was taken with a piece of bread anc 
sausage, before the soup appeared. The taste of the liquor 
was sweet, unctuous and not agreeable. Our party consist- 
ed of the captain, the chief officer, who was his brother-in- 
law, the Pole, who was a second-cousin of Kosciusko, and 
had a name consisting of eight consonants and two vowels, 
a grave young Swede with a fresh Norse complexion, and 
our two selves. The steward, Hildebrand, and the silent 



A WINTER VOYAGE ON THE BALTIC 15 

stewardess, Marie, were our attendants and purveyors, 
The ship's officers were rather slow and opaque, and the 
Swede sublimely self-possessed and indifferent ; but the Pole, 
who had been condemned to death at Cracow, and afterward 
invented cheap gas, was one of the jolliest fellows alive. 
His German was full of funny mistakes, but he rattled 
away with as much assurance as if it had been his native 
tongue. Before dinner was over, we were all perfectly well 
acquainted with each other. 

Night had already set in on the Baltic ; nothing was to 
be seen but snow ; the deck was heaped with freight ; the 
storm blew in our teeth; and the steamer, deeply laden, 
moved slowly and laboriously ; so we stretched ourselves on 
the narrow bunks in our hut, and preserved a delicate regard 
for our equilibrium, even in sleep. In the morning the 
steep cliffs of Moen, a Danish island, were visible on our 
left. We looked for Riigen, the last stronghold of the wor- 
ship of Odin in the Middle Ages, but a raw mist rolled 
down upon the sea, and left us advancing blindly as before. 
The wind was strong and cold, blowing the vapory water- 
smoke in long trails across the surface of the waves. It waa 
not long, however, before some dim white gleams through 
the mist were pointed out as the shores of Sweden, and the 
Carl Johan slackened her speed to a snail's pace, snuffing 
at headland after headland, like a dog off the scent, in order 
to find her way into Ystad. 

A lift of the fog favored us at last, and we ran into the 
little harbor. I walked the contracted hurricane deck at 
three o'clock, with the sunset already flushing the west, 
fooked on the town and land, and thought of my friend Dr 



£6 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

Kane. The mercury had fallen to 16°, a foot of snow cov- 
ered the house-roofs, the low, undulating hills all were the 
same monotonous no-color, and the yellow- haired people on 
the pier were buttoned up close, mittened and fur-capped, 
The captain telegraphed to Calmar, our next port, and 
received an answer that the sound was full of ice and the 
harbor frozen up. A custom-house officer, who took supper 
with us on board, informed us of the loss of the steam-ship 
Umea, which was cut through by the ice near Sundsvall, 
and sunk, drowning fifteen persons — a pleasant prospect for 
our further voyage — and the Pole would have willingly 
landed at Ysfcad if he could have found a conveyance to get 
beyond it. We had twelve tons of coal to take on board, 
and the work proceeded so slowly that we caught another 
snow-storm so thick and blinding that we dared not venture 
out of the harbor. 

On the third morning, nevertheless, we were again at sea, 
having passed Bomholm, and were heading for the southern 
end of the Island of Oland. About noon, as we were sitting 
huddled around the cabin stove, the steamer suddenly stop- 
ped. There was a hurried movement of feet overhead — a 
cry— and we rushed on deck. One of the sailors was in the 
.ict of throwing overboard a life buoy. " It is the Pole !* 
was our first exclamation. " No, no," said Hildebrand, with 
r distressed face, " it is the cabin-boy" — a sprightly, hand- 
some fellow of fourteen. There he was struggling in the 
icy water, looking toward the steamer, which was every 
moment more distant, Two men were in the little boat, 
which had just been run down from the davits, but it seem- 
ed an eternity until their oars were shipped, and they pulled 



4 WINTER VCYAGE ON THE BALTIC. \, 

away on their errand of life or death. We urged the matt 
to put the steamer about, but he passively refused. Tlu 
boy still swam, but the boat was not yet half-way, and 
headed too much to the left. There was no tiller, and the 
men could only guess at their course. We guided them bj 
signs, watching the boj's head, now a mere speck, seen at 
intervals under the lowering sky. He struggled gallantly ; 
the boat drew nearer, and one of the men stood up and 
looked around. We watched with breathless suspense for 
the reappearance of the brave young swimmer, but we 
watched in vain. Poor boy ! who can know what was the 
agony of those ten minutes, while the icy waves gradually 
benumbed and dragged down the young life that struggled 
with such desperate energy to keep its place in the world ! 
The men sat down and rowed back, bringing only his cap. 
which they had found floating on the sea. "Ah!" said 
Hildebrand, with tears in his eyes, u I did not want to take 
him this voyage, but his mother begged me so hard that I 
could not refuse, and this is the end !" 

We had a melancholy party in the cabin that afternoon. 
The painful impression made by this catastrophe was 
heightened by the knowledge that it might have been pre- 
vented. The steamer amidships was filled up to her rail 
with coal, and the boy was thrown overboard by a sudden 
lurch while walking upon it. Immediately afterwards, lines 
were rove along the stanchions, to prevent the same thing 
happening again. The few feet of deck upon which we could 
walk were slippery with ice, and we kept below, smoking 
gloomily and saying little. Another violent snow-storm 
same on from the north, but in the afternoon we caughi 



18 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

Bight of some rocks off Carlscrona, and made the light oc 
Oland in the evening. The wind had been blowing so 
freshly that our captain suspected Calmar Sound might be 
clear, and determined to try the passage.. We felt our way 
lowly through the intricate sandbanks, in the midst of fog 
and snow, until after midnight, when only six miles from 
Calmar, we were stopped by fields of drift ice, and had to 
put back again. 

The fourth morning dawned cold and splendidly clear. 
When I went on deck we were rounding the southern point 
of Oland, through long belts of floating ice. The low chalk 
cliffs were covered with snow, and looked bleak and desolate 
enough. The wind now came out of the west, enabling us 
to carry the foresail, so that we made eight or nine knots, in 
spite of our overloaded condition. Braisted and I walked 
the deck all day, enjoying the keen wind and clear, faint 
sunshine of the North. In the afternoon, however, it blew 
half a gale, with flurries of mingled rain and snow. The 
sea rose, and the steamer, lumbered as she was, could not be 
Steered on her course, but had to be " conned," to keep off 
the strain. The hatches were closed, and an occasional sea 
broke over the bows. We sat below in the dark huts ; the 
Pole, leaning against the bulkhead, silently awaiting his 
fate, as he afterwards confessed. 1 had faith enough in the 
timidity of our captain, not to feel the least alarm — and 
true enough, two hours had not elapsed before we lay-to un- 
der the lee of the northern end of Oland. The Pole then 
Bat down, bathed from head to foot in a cold sweat, and 
would have landed immediately, had it been possible. The 
Swede was as inexpressive as ever, with the same ialf-smik 
on his fair, serious face 



A WINTER VOYAGE ON THE BALTIC. 19 

I was glad to find that our captain did not intend to lose 
the wind, but would start again in an hour or two. We 
had a quieter night than could have been anticipated, fol- 
lowed by a brilliant morning. Such good progress had been 
made that at sunrise the lighthouse on the rocks of Landsozt 
was visible, and the jagged masses of that archipelago of 
cloven isles which extends all the way to Tornea, began to 
Btud the sea. The water became smoother as we ran into 
the sound between Landsort and the outer isles. A long 
line of bleak, black rocks, crusted with snow, stretched be- 
fore us. Beside the lighthouse, at their southern extremity, 
there were two red frame-houses, and a telegraph station. 
A boat, manned by eight hardy sailors, came off with a pilot, 
who informed us that Stockholm was closed with ice, and 
that the other steamers had been obliged to stop at the little 
port of Dalaro, thirty miles distant. So for Dalard we 
headed, threading the channels of the scattering islands, 
which gradually became higher and more picturesque, with 
clumps of dark fir crowning their snowy slopes. The mid- 
day sun hung low on the horizon, throwing a pale yellow 
light over the wild northern scenery ; but there was life in 
the cold air, and I did not ask for summer. 

We passed the deserted fortress of Dalaro, a square stone 
structure, which has long since outlived its purpose, on the 
summit of a rock in the sound. Behind it, opened a quiet 
bay, held in a projecting arm of the mainland, near the ex- 
tremity of which appeared our port — a village of about fifty 
houses, scattered along the abrupt shore. The dark-red 
buildings stood out distinctly against the white background ; 
two steamers and half a dozen sailing crafts were moored 



20 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

below them ; about as many individuals were moving quietly 
about, and for all the life and animation we could see, we 
might have been in Kamtchatka. 

As our voyage terminated here, our first business was tc 
find means of getting to Stockholm by land. Our fellow- 
passengers proposed that we should join company, and 
engage five horses and three sleds for ourselves and luggage* 
The Swede willingly undertook to negotiate for us, and set 
about the work with his usual impassive semi-cheerfulness. 
The landlord of the only inn in the place promised to have 
everything ready by six o'clock the next morning, and our 
captain, who was to go on the same evening, took notices of 
our wants, to be served at the two intervening post-stations 
on the road. We then visited the custom-house, a cabin 
about ten feet square, and asked to have our luggage ex- 
amined. u No," answered the official, " we have no authority 
to examine anything; you must wait until we send to 
Stockholm." This was at least a new experience. We 
were greatly vexed and annoyed, but at length, by dint of 
explanations and entreaties, prevailed upon the man to 
attempt an examination. Our trunks were brought ashore, 
and if ever a man did his duty conscientiously, it was this 
same Swedish official. Every article was taken out and 
separately inspected, with an honest patience which I could 
not but admire. Nothing was found contraband, however ; 
we had the pleasure of re-packing, and were then pulled 
Dack to the Carl Johan in a profuse sweat, despite the in- 
Sense cold 



STOCXHOiJH.— PREPARATIONS PGR THE NORTH 21 



CHAPTER II. 

STOCXH0LM. PREPARATIONS FOR THE NORTH. 

On the following morning we arose at five, went ashore 
10 tne darkness, and after waiting an hour, succeeded in 
getting our teams together. The horses were small, but 
spirited, the sleds rudely put together, but strong, and not 
uncomfortable, and the drivers, peasants of the neighborhood, 
patient, and good-humored. Climbing the steep bank, we 
were out of the village in two minutes, crossed an open com- 
mon, and entered the forests of fir and pine. The sleighing 
was superb, and our little nags carried us merrily along, at 
the usual travelling rate of one Swedish mile (nearly seven 
English) per hour. Enveloped from head to foot in our fur 
robes, we did not feel the sharp air, and in comparing our 
sensations, decided that the temperature was about 20°. 
What was our surprise, on reaching the post-station, at 
learning that it was actually 2° below zero ! 

Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the darkness decreased, but 

the morning was cloudy, and there was little appearance of 

daybreak before nine o'clock. In the early twilight we were 

startled by the appearance of a ball of meteoric fire, nearly 
9 * 



r £ ( 4 NORTHERN TRAVSr.. 

as large as the moon, and of a soft white lustre, which 
moved in a horizontal line from east to west, and disap- 
peared without a sound. I was charmed by the forest 
scenery through which we passed. The pine, spruce, and 
iir trees, of the greatest variety of form, were completely 
coated with frozen snow, and stood as immovable as forests 
of bronze incrusted with silver. The delicate twigs of thf 
weeping birch resembled sprays of crystal, of a thousand airy 
and exquisite patterns. There was no wind, except in the 
open glades between the woods, where the frozen lakes spread 
cut like meadow intervals. As we approached the first sta- 
tion there were signs of .cultivation — fields inclosed with 
stake fences, low red houses, low barns, and scanty patches 
of garden land. We occasionally met peasants with their 
sleds — hardy, red-faced fellows, and women solid enough to 
outweigh their bulk in pig-iron. 

The post-station was a cottage in the little hamlet of 
Berga. We drove into the yard, and while sleds and horses 
were being changed, partook of some boiled milk and tough 
rye-bread, the only things to be had, but both good of their 
kind. The travellers' room was carpeted and comfortable, 
and the people seemed poor only because of their few wants. 
Our new sleds were worse than the former, and so were out 
horses, but we came to the second station in time, and found 
we must make still another arrangement. The luggage 
was sent ahead on a large sled, while each pair of us, seated 
in a one horse cutter, followed after it, driving ourselves, 
Swedish horses are stopped by a whistle, and encouraged by 
a smacking of the lips, which I found impossible to learn at 
once, and they considerately gave us no whips. We had 



STOCKHOLM.— PREPARATIONS FOR THE NORTH. 23 

aow £ broad, beaten road, and the many teams we met and 
passed gave evidence of our approach to Stockholm. The 
country, too, gently undulating all the way, was more thickly 
settled, and appeared to be under tolerable cultivation. 

About one in the afternoon, we climbed a rising slope, and 
from its brow looked down upon Stockholm. The sky was 
dark-gray and lowering; the hills were covered with snow, 
and the roofs of the city resembled a multitude of tents, out 
of which rose half a dozen dark spires. On either side were 
arms of the Malar Lake — white, frozen plains. Snow was 
already in the air, and presently we looked through a screen 
of heavy flakes on the dark, weird, wintry picture. The 
impression was perfect of its kind, and I shall not soon for- 
get it. 

We had passed through the southern suburb, and were 
descending to the lake, when one of our shafts snapped off. 
Resigning the cutter to the charge of a stout maiden, who 
acted as postillion, Braisted and I climbed upon the luggage, 
and in this wise ; shaggy with snowy fur, passed through the 
city, before the Huuse of Nobles and the King's Palace, and 
over the Northern Bridge, and around the northern suburb, 
and I know not where else, to the great astonishment oi 
everybody we met, until our stupid driver found out where 
he was to go. Then we took leave of the Pole, who had 
engaged horses to Norrkoping, and looked utterly disconso- 
late at parting ; but the grave Swede showed his kind heart 
\d last for — neglecting his home, from which he had been 
absent seven years — he accompanied us to an hotel, engaged 
rooms, and saw us safely housed. 

We remained in Stockholm a week, engaged in making 



24 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

preparations for our journey to the North. During this 
time we were very comfortably quartered in Kahn's Hotel, 
the only one in the capital where one can get both rooms 
and meals. The weather changed so entirely, as completely 
to destroy our first impressions, and make the North, which 
we were seeking, once more as distant as when we left Ger- 
many. The day after our arrival a thaw set in, which 
cleared away every particle of snow and ice, opened the 
harbor, freed the Malar Lake, and gave the white hills 
around the city their autumnal colors of brown and dark- 
green. A dense fog obscured the brief daylight, the air. was 
close, damp, and oppressive, everybody coughed and snuffled, 
and the air-tight rooms, so comfortable in cold weather, 
became insufferable. My blood stagnated, my spirits de- 
cended as the mercury rose, and I grew all impatience to 
have zero and a beaten snow- track again. 

We had more difficulty in preparing for this journey than 
I anticipated — not so much in the way of procuring the 
necessary articles, as the necessary information on the sub- 
ject. I was not able to find a man who had made the 
journey in winter, or who could tell me what to expect, and 
what to do. The mention of my plan excitec? very general 
surprise, but the people were too polished and courteous to 
say outright that I was a fool, though I don't doubt that 
many of them thought so. * Even the maps are only minute 
enough for the traveller as far as Tornea, and the only 
special maps of Lapland I could get dated from 1803. The 
Government, it is true, has commenced the publication of a 
very admirable map of the kingdom, in provinces, but thes* 
do not as yet extend beyond Jemteland, about Lat. 6JF 



STOCKHOLM.— PREPARATIONS FOR THE NORTH 25 

north. Neither is there any work to be had, except some 
botanical and geological publications, which of course con- 
tain but little practical information. The English and 
German Handbooks for Sweden are next to useless, north A 
Stockholm. The principal assurances were, that we should 
suffer greatly from cold, that we should take along a supply 
of provisions, for nothing was to be had, and that we must 
expect to endure hardships and privations of all kinds. 
This prospect was not at all alarming, for I remembered 
that I had heard much worse accounts of Ethiopia while 
making similar preparations in Cairo, and have learned that 
all such bugbears cease to exist when they are boldly faced. 
Our outfit, therefore, was restricted to some coffee, sugar, 
3alt, gunpowder, lucifer-matches, lead, shot and slugs, four 
bottles of cognac for cases of extremity, a sword, a butcher- 
knife, hammer, screw- driver, nails, rope- and twine, all con- 
tained in a box about eighteen inches square. A single 
valise held our stock of clothing, books, writing and drawing 
materials, and each of us carried, in addition, a double- 
barrelled musket. We made negotiations for the purchase 
of a handsome Norrland sleigh (numbers of which come to 
Stockholm, at this season, laden with wild-fowl), but the 
thaw prevented our making a bargain. The preparation of 
the requisite funds, however, was a work of some time. In 
this I was assisted by Mr. Mostrom, an excellent valet-de- 
place, whom I hereby recommend to all travellers. When, 
after three or four days 1 labor and diplomacy, he brought 
me the money. I thought 1 had suddenly come in possession 
of an immense fortune. There were hundreds of bank-notes 
and thousands of silver pieces of all sizes — Swedish paper 



26 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

silver and copper, Norwegian notes and dollars, Danish 
marks, and Russian gold, roubles and copecks. The value 
belied the quantity, and the vast pile melted away so fast 
that I was soon relieved of my pleasant delusion. 

Our equipment should have been made in Germany, for, 
singularly enough, Stockholm is not half so well provided 
with furs and articles of winter clothing as Hamburg or 
Leipsic. Besides, everything is about fifty per cent dearer 
here. We were already provided with ample fur robes, I 
with one of gray bear-skin, and Braisted with yellow fox. 
To these we added caps of sea-otter, mittens of dog-skin, 
lined with the fur of the Arctic hare, knitted devil's caps, 
woollen sashes of great length for winding around the body, 
and, after long search, leather Russian boots lined with 
sheepskin and reaching halfway up the thigh. When rig- 
ged out in this costume, my diameter was about equal to 
half my height, and I found locomotion rather cumbrous ; 
while Braisted, whose stature is some seven inches shorter, 
waddled along like an animated cotton-bale. 

Everything being at last arranged, so far as our limited 
information made it possible, for a two months' journey, we 
engaged places in a diligence which runs as far as Gefle, 
120 miles north of Stockholm. There we hoped to find 
snow and a colder climate. One of my first steps had been 
to engage a Swedish teacher, and by dint of taking double 
lessons every day, I flattered myself that I had made suffi- 
cient progress in the language to travel without an inter- 
preter — the most inconvenient and expensive of persons. 
To be sure, a week is very little for a new language, but tc 
one who speaks English and German, Swedish is already 
half acauired. 



FIRST EXPERIENCES OF NOETHEKM TR^TEU jg? 



CHAPTER ill. 

FIRST EXPERIENCES OF NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

The diligence was a compact little vehicle, carrying foul 
persons, but we two were so burdened with our guns, sword, 
money-baa;, field-glass, over-boots and two-fathom-long 
sashes, that we found the space allotted to us small enough. 
We started at eight o'clock, and had not gone a hundred 
yards before we discovered that the most important part of 
our outfit — the maps — had been left behind. It was toe 
late to return, and we were obliged to content ourselves with 
the hope of supplying them at Upsala or Gene. 

We rolled by twilight through the Northern suburb. 
The morning was sharp and cold, and the roads, which had 
been muddy and cut up the day before, were frozen terribly 
hard and rough. Our fellow-passengers were two Swedes, 
an unprepossessing young fellow who spoke a few words of 
English, and a silent old gentleman: we did not derive 
much advantage from their society, and I busied myself with 
observing the country through which we passed. A mile 
or two, past handsome country-seats and some cemeteries, 
brought us into the region of forests. The pines were tall 
and picturesque in their forms, and the grassy meadows 



28 NORTHERN TRAYFX 

between them, entirely clear of snow, were wonderfully green 
for the season. During the first stage we passed some inlets 
of the Baltic, highly picturesque with their irregular wooctd 
shores. They had all been frozen over during the night 
We were surprised to see, on a southern hill-side, four pea- 
sants at work ploughing. How they got their shares 
through the frozen sod ; unless the soil was remarkably dry 
and sandy, was more than I could imagine. We noticed 
occasionally a large manor-house, with its dependent out- 
buildings, and its avenue of clipped beeches or lindens, look- 
ing grand and luxurious in the midst of the cold dark fields. 
Here and there were patches of wheat, which the early snow 
had kept green, and the grass in the damp hollows was still 
bright, yet it was the 15th of December, and we were 
almost in lat. 60° N. 

The houses were mostly one-story wooden cottages, of a 
dull red color, with red roofs. In connection with the 
black-green of the pine and fir woods they gave the country 
a singularly sombre aspect. There was little variation in 
the scenery all the way to Upsala. In some places, the soil 
appeared to be rich and under good cultivation ; here the 
red villages were more frequent, and squat church-towers 
showed themselves in the distance. In other places, we had 
but the rough hills, or rather knobs of gray gneiss, whose 
masses were covered with yellow moss, and the straggling 
fir forests. We met but few country teams on the road; 
nobody was to be seen about the houses, and the land seemed 
to be asleep or desolated. Even at noon, when the sun csmc 
out fairly, he was low on the horizon, and gave but ar 
eclipsed lights which was more cheerless than complete dark 
ness 



FIRST EXPERIENCES OF NORTHERN TRAVEL. 29 

The sun set about three o'clock, but we had a long, splen- 
did twilight, a flush of orange, rose and amber-green, worthy 
of a Mediterranean heaven. Two hours afterwards, the 
lights of Upsala appeared, and we drove under the imposing 
front of the old palace, through clean streets, over the 
Upsala River, and finally stopped at the door of a court- 
yard. Here we were instantly hailed by some young fellows, 
who inquired if we did not want rooms. The place did not 
appear to be an inn, but as the silent old gentleman got out 
and went in, I judged it best to follow his example, and the 
diligence drove off with our baggage. We were right, after 
all: a rosy, handsome, good-humored landlady appeared, 
promised to furnish us with beds and a supper, to wake us 
betimes, and give us coffee before leaving. 

The old gentleman kindly put on his coat and accom- 
panied us to a bookstore on the public square, where I found 
Akrell's map of Northern Sweden, and thus partially re- 
placed our loss. He sat awhile in our room trying to con- 
verse, but I made little headway. On learning that we 
were bound for Tornea, he asked : " Are you going to buy 
lumber ? ; ' " No," I answered ; " we are merely going to see 
the country." He laughed long and heartily at such an 
absurd idea, got up in a hurry, and went to bed without 
saying another word. We had a supper of various kinds of 
Bau3age, tough rye bread, and a bowl of milk, followed by 
excellent beds — a thing which you are sure to find every- 
where in Sweden. 

We drove off again at half-past six in the morning moon 
kight, with a temperature of zero. Two or three miles from 
the town we passed the mounds of old Upsala, the graves c 



SO NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

Odin, Thor and Freya ; rising boldly agaiot the first glim 
merings of daylight. The landscape was broad, lark and 
silent, the woods and fields confusedly blended together, and 
only the sepulchres of the ancient gods broke the level line 
of the horizon. I could readily have believed in them at 
that hour. 

Passing over the broad rich plain of Upsala, we entered 
a gently undulating country, richer and better cultivated 
than the district we had traversed the previous day. It was 
splendidly wooded with thick fir forests, floored with bright 
green moss. Some of the views toward the north and west 
were really fine from their extent, though seen in the faded 
light and long shadows of the low northern sun. In the 
afternoon, we passed a large white church, with four little 
towers at the corners, standing in the midst of a village of 
low red stables, in which the country people shelter their 
horses while attending service. There must have been fifty 
or sixty of these buildings, arranged in regular streets In 
most of the Swedish country churches, the belfry stands 
apart, a squat, square tower, painted red, with a black upper 
story, and is sometimes larger than the church itself. The 
houses of the peasants are veritable western shanties, except 
in color and compactness. No wind finds a cranny to enter, 
and the roofs of thick thatch, kept down by long, horizontal 
poles, have an air of warmth and comfort. The stables are 
banked with earth up to the hay-loft, and the cattle enter 
their subterranean stalls through sloping doorways like 
those of the Egyptian tombs. 

Notwithstanding we made good progress through the day. 
it was dark long; before we reached the bridge over the Dal 



FIRST EXPERIENCES OF NORTHERN TRAVEL. 31 

Elv, and of the famous cascades we saw only a sloping white 
glimmer, between dark masses of forest, and heard the nois€ 
of the broken waters. At Elfkarleby we were allowed 
twenty minutes for dinner — boiled salmon and beefsteak 
both bad. I slept after this, until aroused by the old Swede 
as we entered Gefle. We drove across a broad bridge, 
looked over vessels frozen into the inlet of the Gulf, passed 
a large public square, and entered the yard of the diligence 
office. A boy in waiting conducted us to a private house, 
where furnished rooms were to be had, and here we obtained 
tea, comfortable beds, and the attendance of a rosy servant- 
girl, who spoke intelligible Swedish. 

My first care the next morning, was to engage horses and 
send off my forbud papers. We were now to travel by 
" skjatsP (pronounced shoos), or post, taking new horses at 
each station on the road. The forbud tickets are simply 
orders for horses to be ready at an appointed time, and are 
sent in advance to all the stations on the road, either by 
mail or by a special messenger. Without this precaution, 
I was told, we might be subjected to considerable delay. 
This mode of travelling is peculiar to Sweden and Norway. 
It has been in existence for three or four centuries, and 
though gradually improved and systematized with the lapse 
of time, it is still sufficiently complex and inconvenient to 
a traveller coming from the railroad world. 

Professor Retzius had referred me to the botanist Hart 
tnan, in case of need, but 1 determined to commence by 
helping myself. I had a little difficulty at first: the peopl 
are unused to speaking with foreigners, and if you ask them 
to talk slowly, they invariably rattle away twice as fast ae 



32 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

before. I went into a variety shop on the public square^ 
ana asked where I could engage horses for Sundsvall. 
After making myself understood, as I supposed, the clerk 
handed me some new bridles. By dint of blundering, 1 
gradually circumscribed the range of my inquiries, and 
finally came to a focus at the right place. Having ordered 
horses at six the next morning, and despatched the fbrbud 
tickets by the afternoon's mail, I felt that I had made a 
good beginning, and we set out to make the tour of Gene. 

This is a town of eight or ten thousand inhabitants, with 
a considerable shipping interest, and a naval school. It is 
a pretty place, well built, and with a neat, substantial air. 
The houses are mostly two stories high, white, and with 
spacious courts in the rear. The country around is low but 
rolling, and finely clothed with dark forests of fir and pine. 
It was a superb day — gloriously clear, with a south wind, 
bracing, and not too cold, and a soft, pale lustre from the 
cloudless sun. But such a day! Sunrise melting into 
sunset without a noon — a long morning twilight, a low, 
slant sun, shining on the housetops for an hour or so, and ' 
the evening twilight at three in the afternoon. Nothing 
seemed real in this strange, dying light — nothing but my 
ignorance of Swedish, whenever I tried to talk. 

In the afternoon, we called on the Magister Hartman, 
whom we found poring over his plants. He spoke English 
olerably, and having m^de a journey through Lapland 
from Tornea to the Lyngen Fiord, was able to give us some 
information about the country. He encouraged us in the 
belief that we should find the journey more rapid and easy 
in winter than in summer. He said the Swedes feared the 



FIRST EXPERIENCES OF NORTHERN TRAVEL. 33 

North and few of them ever made a winter journey thither, 
but nothing could stop the Americans and the English from 
going anywhere. He also comforted us with the assurance 
that we should find snow only six Swedish (forty English) 
miles further north. Lat. 60° 85' N., the 17th of December 
and no snow yet ! In the streets, we met an organ-grinder 
playing the Marseillaise. There was no mistaking the jet- 
black hair, the golden complexion and the brilliant eyes o* 
the player, " Siete Italiano ?" 1 asked. a Sicuro /" ho 
answered, joyously : " e lei anche ?'' " Ah," he said, in 
answer to my questions, "io non amo questo paese ; I 
freddo ed oscuro ; non si gagna viente — ma in Italia si 
vive? My friend Ziegler had already assured me : " One 
should see the North, but not after the South." Well, we 
shall see; but I confess that twenty degrees below zero 
would have chilled me less than the sight of that Italian. 

We were at the inn punctually at six in the morning, but 
our horses were not ready. The hallkarl, or ostler, after 
hearing my remonstrances, went on splitting wood, and, as 
I did not know enough of Swedish to scold with any profit, 
[ was obliged to remain wrathful and silent. He insisted 
on my writing something (I could not understand what) in 
the post-book, so I copied the affidavit of a preceding travel- 
ler and signed my name to it, which seemed to answer the 
purpose. After more than half an hour, two rough two- 
wheeled carts were gotten ready^ and the farmers to whom 
they belonged, packed themselves and our luggage into one, 
leaving us to drive the other. We mounted, rolled ourselves 
in our furs, thrust our feet into the hay, and rattled out oi 
Gefle in the frosty moonlight. Such was our first ex- 
perience of travelling by skjuts. 



34 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

The road went northward, into dark forests, over the 
same undulating, yet monotonous country as before. The 
ground was rough and hard, and our progress slow, so that 
we did not reach the end of the first station (10 miles) until 
nine o'clock. As we drove into the post-house, three other 
travellers, who had the start of us y and consequently the first 
right to horses, drove away. I was dismayed to find that 
my forbud had not been received, but the ostler informed 
me that by paying twelve skillings extra I could have horses 
at once. While the new carts were getting ready, the post- 
man, wrapped in wolf-skin, and with a face reddened by the 
wind, came up, and handed out my forbud ticket. Such 
was our first experience of forbud. 

On the next station, the peasant who was ahead with our 
luggage left the main road and took a rough track through 
the woods. Presently we came to a large inlet of the 
Bothnia n gulf, frozen solid from shore to shore, and upon 
this we boldly struck out. The ice was nearly a foot thick, 
and as solid as marble. So we drove for at least four miles, 
and finally came to land on the opposite side, near a .saw- 
mill. At the next po3t-house we found our predecessors 
just setting off again in sleds ; the landlord informed us that 
he had only received my forbud an hour previous, and, 
according to law was allowed three hours to get ready his 
second instalment of horses, the first being exhausted. 
There was no help for it : we therefore comforted ourselves 
with breakfast. At one o'clock we set out again in low 
Norrland sleds, but there was little snow at first, and we 
were obliged to walk the first few miles. The station was a 
long one (twenty English miles), and our horses not thf 



FIRST EXPERLBNCES OF NORTHERN TRAVEL. 35 

most promising. Coming upon solid snow at last, we 
travelled rather more swiftly, but witli more risk. The 
sleds, although so low, rest upon narrow runners, and the 
shafts are attached by a hook, upon which they turn in all 
directions, so that the sled sways from side to side, entirely 
independent of them. In going off the main road to get* a 
little more snow on a side track, I discovered this fact by 
overturning the sled, and pitching Braisted and myself out 
on our heads. There were lakes on either side, and we made 
many miles on the hard ice, which split with a dull sound 
under us. Long after dark, we reached the next station, 
Stratjara, and found our horses in readiness. We started 
again, by the gleam of a flashing aurora, going through 
forests and fields in the uncertain light, blindly following 
our leader, Braisted and I driving by turns, and already 
much fatigued. After a long time, we descended a steep 
hill, to the Ljusne River. The water foamed and thundered 
under the bridge, and I could barely see that it fell in a 
series of rapids over the rocks. 

At Mo Myskie, which we reached at eight o'clock, our 
horses had been ready four hours, which gave us a dollai 
banco v intapeimingar (waiting money) to pay. The land- 
lord, a sturdy, jolly fellow, with grizzly hair and a prosper- 
ous abdomen, asked if we were French, and I addressed him 
in that language. He answered in English on finding that 
we were Americans. On his saying that he had learned 
English in Tripoli, I addressed him in Arabic. His eyea 
flashed, he burst into a roaring laugh of the profoundest 
delight, and at once answered in the majestic gutturals of 
the Orient. "Allah akhbar !" he cried; "I have beep 



^6 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

waiting twenty years for some one to speak to me in Arabic 
and you are the first !" He afterwards changed to Italian, 
which he spoke perfectly well, and preferred to any foreigc 
language. We were detained half an hour by his delight, 
and went off forgetting to pay for a bottle of beer, the price 
of which I sent back by the skjutsbonde, or postillion. 

This skjutsbojide was a stupid fellow, who took us a long, 
circuitous road, in order to save time. We hurried along 
in the darkness, constantly crying out " Kor pa /" (Drive 
on !) and narrowly missing a hundred overturns. It was 
eleven at night before we reached the inn at Kungsgarden, 
where, fortunately, the people were awake, and the pleasant 
old landlady soon had our horses ready. We had yet six- 
teen English miles to Bro, our lodging-place, where we 
should have arrived by eight o'clock. I hardly know how 
to describe the journey. We were half asleep, tired out 
nearly frozen, (mercury below zero) and dashed along at 
haphazard, through vast dark forests, up hill and down, 
following the sleepy boy who drove ahead with our baggage. 
A dozen times the sled, swaying from side to side like a 
pendulum, tilted, hung in suspense a second, and then 
righted itself again. The boy fell back on the hay and 
slept, until Braisted, creeping up behind, startled him with 
terrific yells in his ears. Away then dashed the horse, down 
steep declivities, across open, cultivated valleys, and into the 
woods again. After midnight the moon rose, and the cold 
was intenser than ever. The boy having fallen asleep again, 
the horse took advantage of it to run off at full speed, we 
following at the same rate, sometimes losing sight of him 
and uncertain of our way, until, after a chase of a few miles 



FIRST EXPERIENCES OF NORTHERN TRAVEL. 3? 

we found the boy getting his reins out from under the 
runners. Finally, after two in the morning, we reached 
Bro. 

Here we had ordered a warm room, beds and supper, by 
fdrbucl* but found neither. A sleepy, stupid girl, who had 
just got up to wait on a captain who had arrived before us 
and was going on, told us there was nothing to be had. 
" We must eat, if we have to eat you,' 7 I said, savagely, for 
we were chilled through and fierce with hunger; but I might 
as well have tried to hurry the Venus de Medici. At last 
we got some cold sausage, a fire, and two couches, on which 
we lay down without undressing, and slept. I had scarcely 
closed my eyes, it seemed, when the girl, who was to call us 
at half-past five o'clock, came into the room. " Is it half- 
past five ?" I asked. u Oh, yes," she coolly answered, " it's 
much more." We were obliged to hurry off at once to avoid 
paying so much waiting money. 

x\t sunrise we passed Hudiksvall, a pretty town at the 
head of a deep bay, in which several vessels were frozen up 
for the winter. There were some handsome country houses 
in the vicinity, better cultivation, more taste in building, 
and a few apple and cherry orchards. The mercury was 
still at zero, but we suffered less from the cold than the day 
previous, and began to enjoy our mode of travel. The 
horses were ready at all the stations on our arrival, and we 
were not delayed in changing. There was now plenty oi 
Snow, and the roads were splendid — the country undulating, 
with beautiful, deep valleys, separated by high, wooded hills, 
and rising to bold ridges in the interior. The houses were 
larger and better than we had yet seen — so were the people 
3 



35 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

*— and there was a general air of progress and well-doing 
In fact, both country and population improved in appearance 
as we went northward. 

The night set in very dark and cold, threatening snow 
We had an elephant of a horse, which kicked up his heel 
and frisked like an awkward bull-pup, dashed down the hills 
like an avalanche, and carried us forward at a rapid rate. 
We coiled ourselves up in the hay, kept warm, and trusted 
our safety to Providence, for it was impossible to see the 
road, and we could barely distinguish the other sled, a dark 
speck before us. The old horse soon exhausted his en- 
thusiasm. Braisted lost the whip, and the zealous boy 
ahead stopped every now and then to hurry us on. The 
aurora gleamed but faintly through the clouds ; we were 
nearly overcome with sleep and fatigue, but took turns in 
arousing and amusing each other. The sled vibrated con- 
tinually from side to side, and finally went over, spilling 
ourselves and our guns into a snow-bank The horse stop- 
ped and waited for us, and then went on until the shafts 
came off. Toward ten o'clock, the lights of Sundsvall 
appeared, and we soon afterwards drove into the yard of the 
inn, having made one hundred and fifty-five miles in two days. 
We were wretchedly tired, and hungry as bears, but found 
room in an adjoining house, an*d succeeded in getting a sup- 
per of reindeer steak. I fell asleep in my chair, before my 
pipe was half-finished, and awoke the next morning to a sense 
of real fatigue. I had had enough of travelling by f&rbud 



A SLEIGH HIDE THROUGH NORRLAND. Jjq 



CHAPTER IV. 

A SLEIGH RIDE THROUGH NORRLAND. 

Sundsvall is a pretty little town of two or three 
thousand inhabitants, situated at the head of a broad and 
magnificent bay. It is the eastern terminus of the only 
post-road across the mountains to Trondjera (Drontheim) in 
Norway which passes through the extensive province of 
Jemteland. It is, consequently, a lively and bustling 
place, and has a considerable coasting trade The day after 
our arrival was market-day, and hundreds of the Norrlanders 
thronged the streets and public square. They were all 
fresh, strong, coarse, honest, healthy people — the men with 
long yellow hair, large noses and blue eyes, the women with 
the rosiest of checks and the fullest development of body 
and limb. Many of the latter wore basques or jackets oi 
Bheepskin with the wool inside, striped petticoats and bright 
red stockings. The men were dressed in shaggy sheepskin 
eoats, or garments of reindeer skin, with the hair outward. 
There was a vast collection of low Norrland sleds, laden 
with butter, cheese, hay, and wild game, and drawn by the 
rough and tough little horses of the country. Here wag 
atill plenty of life and animation, although we were already 



i\ij NORTHERN TRAVIS 

so far rorth that the sun did not shine upon Sundsvall th* 
whole day, being hidden by a low hill to the south. The 
snowy ridges on the north, however, wore a bright roseate 
blush from his rays, from ten until two. 

We called upon a merchant of the place, to whom I had 
a letter of introduction. He was almost the only man I 
met before undertaking the journey, who encouraged me to 
push on. "The people in Stockholm," said he, "know 
nothing about Northern Sweden." He advised me to give 
up travelling by forbud, to purchase a couple of sleds, and 
take our chance of finding horses : we would have no trouble 
in making from forty to fifty English miles per day. On 
returning to the inn, I made the landlord understand what 
we wanted, but could not understand him in return. At 
this juncture came in a handsome fellow, with a cosmopolitan 
air, whom Braisted recognised, by certain invisible signs, as 
the mate of a ship, and who explained the matter in very 
good English. I purchased two plain but light and 
strongly made sleds for 50 rigs (about $14 ), which seemed 
very cheap, but I afterwards learned that I paid much more 
than the current price. 

On repacking our effects, we found that everything liquid 
was frozen— even a camphorated mixture, which had been 
carefully wrapped in flannel. The cold, therefore, must 
have been much more severe than we supposed. Our sup- 
plies, also, were considerably damaged — the lantern broken, 
a powder-flask cracked, and the salt, shot, nails, wad- 
ding, &c, mixed together in beautiful confusion. Every- 
thing was stowed in one of the sleds, which was driven by 
the postilion ; the other contained only our two selves. We 



A SLEIGH HIDE THROUGH NORRLAND. 4] 

were off the next morning, as the first streaks of dawn 
appeared in the sky. The roads about Sundsvall were 
very much cut up, and even before getting out of the town 
we were pitched over head and ears into a snow-bank. 

We climbed slowly up and darted headlong down the 
idges which descend from the west toward the Bothnian 
Gulf, dividing its tributary rivers; and toward sunrise, came 
to a broad bay, completely frozen over and turned into a 
snowy plain. With some difficulty the skjutsbonde made 
me understand that a shorter road led across the ice to the 
second post-station, Fjal, avoiding one change of horses. 
The way was rough enough at first, over heaped blocks of 
ice, but became smoother where the wind had full sweep, and 
had cleared the waier before it froze. Our road was marked 
out by a double row of young fir-trees, planted in the ice. 
The bay was completely land-locked, embraced by a bold 
sweep of wooded hills, with rich, populous valleys between. 
Before us, three or four miles across, lay the little port ^{ 
Wifsta-warf, where several vessels — among them a ship of 
three or four hundred tun3 — were frozen in for the winter. 
We crossed, ascended a long hill, and drove on through fir 
woods to Fjal, a little hamlet with a large inn. Here we 
got breakfast ; and though it may be in bad taste to speak 
of what one eats, the breakfast was in such good taste that 
I cannot pass over it without lingering to enjoy, in memory 
its wonderful aroma. Besides, if it be true, as some shock 
ingly gross persons assert, that the belly is a more important 
district of the human economy than the brain, a good meal 
deserves chronicling no less than an exalted impression. 
Certain it is, that strong digestive are to be preferred tf 



42 NORTHERN TRAVEL.- 

strong thinking powers — better live unknown than die oi 
dyspepsia. This was our first country meal in Norrland, of 
whose fare the Stockholmers have a horror, yet that stately 
capital never furnished a better. We had beefsteak and 
onions, delicious blood-puddings, the tenderest of pan-cakes 
(no omelette soirfflee could be more fragile), with ruby rasp* 
berry j im, and a bottle of genuine English porter. If you 
think the bill of fare too heavy and solid, take a drive o 
fifteen miles in the regions of Zero, and then let your 
delicate stomach decide. 

In a picturesque dell near Fjal we crossed the rapid 
Indal River, which comes down from the mountains of 
Norway. The country was wild and broken, with occasional 
superb views over frozen arms of the Gulf, and the deep 
rich valleys stretching inland. Leaving Hernosand, the 
capital of the province, a few miles to our right, we kept the 
main northern road, slowly advancing from station to sta- 
tion with old and tired horses. There was a snow-storm in 
the afternoon, after which the sky came out splendidly clear, 
and gorgeous with the long northern twilight. In the 
silence of the hour and the deepening shadows of the forest 
through which we drove, it was startling to hear, all at 
once the sound of voices singing a solemn hymn. My first 
idea was, that some of those fanatical Dissenters of Norr- 
land who meet, as once the Scotch Covenanters, among the 
hills, were having a refreshing winter meeting in the woods, 
fjut on proceeding further we found that the choristers were 
a company of peasants returning from market with their 
empty sleds. 

It was already dark at four o'clock, and our last horses 



A SLEIGH RIDE THROUGH NORRLAND. 43 

were so slow that the postilion, a handsome, lively boy. 
whose pride was a little touched by my remonstrances, failed, 
in spite of all his efforts, to bring us to the station before 
seven. We stopped at Weda, on the Angermann River, the 
largest stream in Northern Sweden. Angermannland, the 
country which it drains, is said to be a very wild and 
beautiful region, where some traces of the old, original 
Asiatic type which peopled Scandinavia are yet to be traced 
in the features of its secluded population. At Weda, we 
found excellent quarters. A neat, quiet, old-fashioned little 
servant-girl, of twelve or fourteen, took charge of us, and 
attended to all our wants with the greatest assiduity. We 
had a good supper, a small but neat foom, clean beds, and 
coffee in the morning, beside a plentiful provision for 
breakfast on the way, for a sum equal to seventy-five cents. 
We left at half-past seven, the waning moon hanging on 
the horizon, and the first almost imperceptible signs of the 
morning twilight in the east. The Angermann River 
which is here a mile broad, was frozen, and our road led 
directly across its surface. The wind blew down it, across 
the snow-covered ice, making our faces tingle with premo- 
nitory signs of freezing, as the mercury was a little below 
zero. My hands were chilled inside the fur mittens, and 1 
was obliged to rub my nose frequently, to prevent it from 
being nipped. The day was raw and chilly, and the tem- 
perature rose very little, although the hills occasionally 
sheltered us from the wind. The scenery, also, grew darker 

md wilder as we advanced. The fir-trees were shorter and 
Stunted, and of a dark greenish-brown, which at a little 

distance appeared completely black. Nothing could exceed 



4:4 A UK l HERN TRAVEL. 

tha bleak, inhospitable character of these landscapes The 
inlets of the Bothnian Gulf were hard, snow-covered plains, 
inclosed by bold, rugged headlands, covered with ink-black 
forests. The more distant ridges faded into a dull indigc 
hue. flecked with patches of ghastly white, under the lower- 
ing, sullen, sh^rt-lived daylight. 

Our road was much rougher than hitherto. We climbed 
long ridges, only to descend by as steep declivities on the 
northern side, to cross the bed of an inland stream, and then 
ascend again. The valleys, however, were inhabited and 
apparently well cultivated, for the houses were large and 
comfortable, and the people had a thrifty, prosperous and 
satisfied air. Beside the farmhouses were immense racks, 
twenty feet high, for the purpose of drying flax and grain, 
and at the stations the people offered for sale very fine and 
beautiful linen of their own manufacture. This is the 
staple production of Norrland, where the short summers are 
frequently insufficient to mature the grain crops. The inns 
were all comfortable buildings, with very fair accommodations 
for travellers. We had bad luck with horses this day, 
however, two or three travellers having been in advance and 
had the pick. On one stage our baggage-sled was driven 
by a poike of not more than ten years old — a darling fellow, 
with a face as round, fresh ana sweet as a damask rose, the 
bluest of eyes, and a cloud of silky golden hair. His suc- 
cessor was a tall, lazy lout, who stopped so frequently to 
talk with the drivers of sleds behind us, that we lost all 
patience, drove past and pushed ahead in the darkness, 
trusting our horse to find the way. His horse followed, 
leaving him in the lurch, and we gave him a long-winded 



A SLEIGH RIDE THROUGH NORRLAND. 4£ 

cWs astern before 'we allowed him to overtake us. This 
bo exasperated him that we had no trouble the rest of the 
way. Mem. — If you wish to travel with speed, make youi 
postilion angry. 

At Hornas they gave us a supper of ale and cold pig 7 
feet, admirable beds, and were only deficient in the matter 
of water for washing. We awoke with headaches, on account 
of gas from the tight Russian stove. The temperature, at 
starting, was 22° below zero — colder than either of us had 
ever before known. We were a little curious, at first, to 
know how we should endure it, but, to our delight, found 
ourselves quite warm and comfortable. The air was still, 
dry, and delicious to inhale. My nose occasionally required 
friction, and my beard and moustache became a solid mass 
of ice, frozen together so that I could scarcely open my 
mouth, and firmly fastened to my fur collar. We travelled 
forty-nine miles, and were twelve hours on the way, yet felt 
no inconvenience from the temperature. 

By this time it was almost wholly a journey by night, 
dawn and twilight, for full day there was none. The sun 
rose at ten and set at two. We skimmed along, over the 
black, fir-clothed hills, and across the pleasant little valleys, 
in the long, gray, slowly-gathering daybreak: then, heavy 
inow-clouds hid half the brief day, and the long, long, dusky 
evening glow settled into night. The sleighing was superb, 
the snow pure as ivory, hard as marble, and beautifully crisp 
and smooth. Our sleds glided ever it without effort, the 
runners making music as they flew. With every day the 
country grew wilder, blacker and more rugged, with no 
chaniro in the general character of the scenery, fn the 
3* 



48 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

afternoon we passed the frontier of Nbrrland, and entered 
the province of West Bothnia. There are fewer horses at 
the stations, as we go north, but also fewer travellers, and wa 
were not often detained. Thus far, we had no difficulty : 
my scanty stock of Swedish went a great way, and I began 
to understand with more facility, even the broad Norrland 
dialect. 

The people of this region are noble specimens of th 
physical man — tall, broad-shouldered, large-limbed, ruddy 
and powerful ; and they are mated with women who, I ven- 
ture to say, do not even suspect the existence of a nervous 
system. The natural consequences of such health are: 
morality and honesty — to say nothing of the quantities of 
rosy and robust children which bless every household. If 
health and virtue cannot secure happiness, nothing can, and 
these Norrlanders appear to be. a thoroughly happy and 
contented race. We had occasional reason to complain of 
their slowness ; but, then, why should they be fast ? It is 
rather we who should moderate our speed. Braisted, how- 
ever, did not accept such a philosophy. " Charles XII. was 
the boy to manage the Swedes," said he to me one day ; " he 
always kept them in a hurry.'' 

We reached Lefwar, our resting-place for the night, in 
good condition, notwithstanding the 22° below, and felt 
much colder in the house, after stripping off our furs, than 
out of doors with them on. They gave us a supper consist- 
ing of smbrgas (" buttergoose" — the Swedish prelude to a 
meal, consisting usually of bread, butter, pickled anchovies, 
and caviar flavored with garlic), sausages, potatoes, and milk, 
and made for us sumptuous beds of the snowiest and sweetest 



A SLEIGH RIDE THROUGH NORRLANL 47 

linen. When we rose next morning it was snowing 
About an inch had fallen during the night, and the mercury 
Lad riser, to 6° below zero. We drove along in the dusky 
half-twilight toward Angesjo. over low, broad hills, covered 
with forests of stunted birch and fir. The scenery con- 
tinued the same, and there is no use 'in repeating the 
description, except to say that the land became more cold 
and barren, and there seemed to be few things cultivated 
except flax, barley and potatoes. Still the same ridges 
sweeping down to the Gulf, on one hand, the same frozen 
bays and inlets on the other, and villages at intervals of 
eight or ten miles, each with its great solid church, low red 
belfry and deserted encampment of red frame stables. 
Before reaching the second station, we looked from a wooded 
height over the open expanse of the Gulf, — a plain of snow- 
covered ice, stretching eastward as far as the eye could 
reach. 

The day gradually became still and cold, until the tem- 
perature readied — 22° again, and we became comfortable in 
the same proportion. The afternoon twilight, splendid with 
its hues of amber, rose and saffron, died away so gradually, 
that it seemed scarcely to fade at all, lighting our path for 
at least three hours after sunset. 'Our postilions were all 
boys — ruddy, hardy young fellows of fourteen or fifteen, who 
drove well and sang incessantly, in spite of the cold. They 
talked much with us, but to little purpose, as I found it 
very difficult to understand the humming dialect they spoke 
Oach, as he received his drickpenningar (drink-money, or 
gratuity), at the end of the fetation, expressed his thanks by 
shaking; hands with us. This is a universal custom 



18 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

throughout the north of Sweden : it is a part of the simple 
natural habits of the people ; and though it seemed rathei 
odd at first to be shaking hands with everybody, from the 
landlord down to the cook and the ostler, we soon came tc 
take it as a matter of course. The frank, unaffected way 
in which the hand was offered, oftener made the custom a 
pleasant one. 

At Stocksjo we decided to push on to a station beyond 
Umea, called Innertafle, and took our horses accordingly. 
The direct road, however, was unused on account of the 
drifts, so we went around through Umea, after all. We 
had nearly a Swedish mile, and it was just dark when we 
descended to the Umea River, across whose solid surface we 
drove, and up a steep bank into the town. We stopped a 
few moments in the little public square, which was crowded 
with people, many of whom had already commenced their 
Christmas sprees The shops were lighted, and the little 
town looked very gay and lively. Passing through, we kept 
down the left bank of the river for a little distance, and then 
struck into the woods. It was night by this time ; all at 
once the boy stopped, mounted a snow-bank, whirled around 
three or four times, and said something to me which T could 
not understand. "What's the matter?" I asked; "is not 
this the road to Innertafle ?" " I don't know — I think not," 
he said. " Don't you know; the way. then ?" I asked again 
" No !" he yelled in reply, whirled around several times 
more, and then drove on. Presently we overtook a pedes 
fcrian, to whom he turned for advice, and who willingly acted 
as guide for the sake of a ride. Away we went again, but 
the snow was so spotless that it was impossible to see the 



A SLEIGH RIDE THROUGH NORRLAND 49 

track. Braisted and I ran upon a snow-bank, were over 
turned and dragged some little distance, but we righted 
ourselves again, and soon afterwards reached our destina- 
tion. 

In the little inn the guests' room lay behind the large 
family kitchen, through which we were obliged to pass. 
We were seized with a shivering fit on stripping off our 
furs, and it seemed scarcely possible to get warm again. 
This was followed by such intense drowsiness that we were 
obliged to lie down and sleep an hour before supper. After 
the cold weather set in, we were attacked with this drowsy 
fit every day, toward evening, and were obliged to take 
turns in arousing and stimulating each other. This we 
generally accomplished by singing " From Greenland's icy 
mountains," and othei appropriate melodies. At Innertafle 
we were attended by a tall landlady, a staid, quiet, almost 
grim person, who paid most deliberate heed to our wants 
After a delay of more than two hours, she furnished us with 
a supper consisting of some kind of fresh fish, with a sauce 
composed of milk, sugar and onions, followed by gryngrdt % 
a warm mush of mixed rice and barley, eaten with milk 
Such was our fare on Christmas eve ; but hunger is the 
best sauce ; and our dishes were plent : fully seasoned with it 



f\Q NORTHERN TR4VKL 



CHAPTER V. 

PROGRESS NORTHWARDS.— A STORM, 

We arose betimes on Christmas morn, but the grim and 
deliberate landlady detained us an hour in preparing our 
coffee. I was in the yard about five minutes, wearing only 
my cloth overcoat and no gloves, and found the air truly 
sharp and nipping, but not painfully severe. Presently, 
Braisted came running in with the thermometer, exclaiming, 
with a yell of triumph, " Thirty, by Jupiter !" (30° of 
Reaumur, equal to 35^° below zero of Fahrenheit.) We 
were delighted with this sign of our approach to the Arctic 
circle. 

The horses were at last ready ; we muffled up carefully, 
and set out. The dawn was just streaking . the East, the 
sky was crystal-clear, and not a breath of air stirring. My 
beard was soon a solid mass of ice, from the moisture of my 
breath, and my nose required constant friction. The day 
previous, the ice which had gathered on my fur collar lay 
against my face so long that the flesh began to freeze over 
niy cheek bones, and thereafter I was obliged to be par- 
ticularly cautious. As it grew lighter, we were surprised 
fco find that our postilion was a girl. She had a heavy 



PROGRESS NORTHWARDS. — A STORM 5 J 

sheepskin over her knees, a muff for her hands, and a shawi 
around her head ; leaving only the eyes visible. Thus 
accoutred, she drove on merrily, and, except that the red of 
her cheeks became scarlet and purple, shuwed no signs of the 
weather. As we approached Sormjole, the first station, w 
again had a broad view of the frozen Bothnian Gulf, over 
which hovered a low cloud of white ice-smoke Looking 
down into the snowy valley of Sormjole, we saw the straight 
pillars of smoke rising from the houses high into the air, 
not spreading, but gradually breaking off into solid masses 
which sank again and filled the hollow, almost concealing 
the houses. Only the white, handsome church, with its tall 
spire, seated on a mound, rose above this pale blue film and 
shone softly in the growing flush of day. 

We ordered horses at once, after drinking a bowl of hot 
milk, flavored with cinnamon. This is the favourite win- 
ter drink of the people, sometimes with the addition di 
brandy. But the Jinkel, or common brandy of Sweden, is a 
detestable beverage, resembling a mixture of turpentine, 
train oil, and bad molasses, and we took the milk unmixed, 
which admirably assisted in keeping up the animal heat. 
The mercury by this time had fallen to 38° below zero. 
We were surprised and delighted to find that we stood the 
cold so easily, and prided ourselves not a little on our pow- 
ers of endurance. Our feet gradually became benumbed, 
but, by walking up the hills, we prevented the circulation 
from coming to a stand-still. 

The cold, however, played some grotesque pranks with us 
My beard, moustache, cap, and fur collar were soon one un- 
divided lump of ice. Our eye-laches became snow-white 



52 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

and heavy with frost, and it required constant motion tc 
keep them from freezing together. We saw everything 
through visors barred with ivory. Our eyebrows and hah 
were as hoary as those of an octogenarian, and our cheeks 
a mixture of crimson and orange, so that we were scarcely 
recognizable by each other. Every one we met had snow- 
white locks, no matter how youthful the face, and, whatever 
was the colour of our horses at starting, we always drove 
milk-white steeds at the close of the post. The irritation 
of our nostrils occasioned the greatest inconvenience, and as 
the handkerchiefs froze instantly, it soon became a matter 
of pain and difficulty to use them. You might as well at- 
tempt to blow your nose with a poplar chip. We could not 
bare our hands a minute, without feeling an iron grasp of 
cold which seemed to squeeze the flesh like a vice, and turn 
the very blood to ice. In other respects we were warm and 
jolly, and I have rarely been in higher spirits. The air was 
exquisitely sweet and pure, and 1 could open my mouth (as 
far as its icy grating permitted) and inhale full draughts 
into the lungs with a delicious sensation of refreshment and 
exhilaration. I had not expected to find such freedom of 
respiration in so low a temperature. Some descriptions of 
severe cold in Canada and Siberia, which I have read, state 
that at such times the air occasions a tingling, smarting 
sensation in the throat and lungs, but I experienced nothing 
of the kind. 

This was arctic travel at last. By Odin, it was glorious ' 
The smooth, firm road, crisp and pure as alabaster, ovei 
which our sleigh-runners talked with the rippling, musical 
murmur of summer brooks ; the sparkling, breathless firraa- 



PROGRESS NORTHWARDS. — A STORM. 53 

merit; the gorgeous rosy flush of morning, slowly deepen- 
ing until the orange disc of the sun cut the horizon ; the 
golden blaze of the tops of the bronze firs ; the glittering of 
the glassy birches ; the long, dreary sweep of the landscape; 
the icy nectar of the perfect air ; the tingling of the roused 
blood in every vein, all alert to guard the outposts of life 
against the besieging cold — it was superb ! The natives 
themselves spoke of the cold as being unusually severe, and 
we congratulated ourselves all the more on our easy endur- 
ance of it. Had we judged only by our own sensations we 
should not have believed the temperature to be nearly so 
low. 

The sun rose a little after ten, and I have never seen 
anything finer than the spectacle which we then saw for 
the first time, but which was afterwards almost daily re- 
peated — the illumination of the forests and snow-fields in 
his level orange beams, for even at midday he was not more 
than eight degrees above the horizon. The tops of the 
trees, only, were touched : still and solid as iron, and cov- 
ered with sparkling frost-crystals, their trunks were changed 
to blazing gold, and their foliage to a fiery orange-brown 
The delicate purple sprays of the birch, coated with ice, 
glittered like wands of topaz and amethyst, and the slopes 
of virgin snow, stretching towards the sun, shone with the 
fairest saffron gleams. There is nothing equal to this in 
the South — nothing so transcendently rich, dazzling, and 
lorious. Italian dawns and twilights cannot surpass those 
we saw every day, not, like the former, fading rapidly into 
the ashen hues of dusk, but lingering for hour after hour 
with scarce a decrease of splendour. Strange that Nature 



54 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

should repeat these lovely aerial effects in such widely dif- 
ferent zones and seasons. I thought to find in the wintel 
landscapes of the far North a sublimity of death and desola< 
tion — a wild, dark, dreary, monotony of expression — but I 
had, in reality, the constant enjoyment of the rarest, the ten 
derest, the most enchanting beauty. 

The people one meets along the road harmonise with these 
unexpected impressions. They are clear eyed and rosy as 
the morning, straight and strong as the fir saplings in their 
forests, and simple, honest, and unsophisticated beyond any 
class of men I have ever seen. They are no milksops either. 
Under the serenity of those blue eyes and smooth, fair faces, 
burns the old Berserker rage, not easily kindled, but terri- 
ble as the lightning when once loosed. " I would like to 
take all the young men north of Sundsvall," says Braisted, 
" put them into Kansas, tell them her history, and then let 
them act for themselves. 7 ' " The co]d in clime are cold in 
blood," sings Byron, but they are only cold through superior 
self-control and freedom from perverted passions. Better 
is the assertion of Tennyson : 

" That bright, and fierce, and fickle is the South, 
And dark, and true, and tender is the North." 

There are tender hearts in the breasts of these northern men 
and women, albeit they are as undemonstrative as the En 
g-lisli — or we Americans, for that matter. It is exhilarating 
to see such people — whose digestion is sound, whose nervea 
are tough as whipcord, whose blood runs in a strong full 
stream, whose impulses are perfectly natural, who are good 



PROGRESS NORTHWARDS. — A STORM. 5fl 

without knowing it, and who are happy without trying to 
be so. Where shall we find such among our restless com* 
munities at home ? 

We made two Swedish miles by noon, and then took a 
breakfast of fried reindeer meat and pancakes, of which we 
ate enormously, t j keep up a good supply of fuel. Braisted 
and 1 consumed about a pound of butter between us. Shriek 
not, young ladies, at our vulgar appetites — you who sip a 
spoonful of ice-cream, or trifle with a diminutive meringue, 
in company, but make amends on cold ham and pickles in 
the pantry, after you go home — I shall tell the truth, though 
it disgust you. This intense cold begets a necessity for fat, 
and with the necessity comes the taste — a wise provision of 
Nature! The consciousness now dawned upon me that I 
might be able to relish train-oil and tallow-candles before 
we had clone with Lapland. 

I had tough work at each station to get my head out of 
my wrappings, which were united with my beard and hair 
in one solid lump. The cold increased instead of diminish- 
ing, and by the time we reached Gumboda, at dusk, it was 
40° below zero. Here we found a company of Finns travel- 
lino; southward, who had en°;ao-ed five horses, obliging us to 
wait a couple of hours. We had already made forty miles, 
and were satisfied with our performance, so we stopped for 
the night. When the thermometer was brought in, the 
mercury was frozen, and on unmufiling I found the end of 
my nose seared as if with a hot iron. The inn was capital; 
we had a warm carpeted room, beds of clean, lavendered 
kinen, and all civilised appliances. In the evening we sa< 
dcwn to a Christmas dinner of sausages, potatoes, pancakes 



56 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

raspberry j um, and a bottle of Barclay and Perkin's best 
porter, in which we drank the health of all dear relatives 
and friends in the two hemispheres. And this was in West 
Bothnia, where we had been told in Stockholm that we 
should starve ! At bedtime, Braisted took out the ther- 
mometer again, and soon brought it in with the mercury 
frozen below all the numbers on the scale. 

In the morning, the landlord came in and questioned us, 
in order to satisfy his curiosity. He took us for Norwe- 
gians, and was quite surprised to find out our real character. 
We had also been taken for Finns, Russians and Danes, 
since leaving Stockholm. " I suppose you intend to buy 
lumber ?"■ said the landlord. " No," said I, " we travel 
merely for the pleasure of it." " Ja so-o-o /" he exclaimed, 
in a tone of the greatest surprise and incredulity. He 
asked if it was necessary that we should travel in such cold 
weather, and seemed reluctant to let us go. The mercury 
showed 25° below zero when we started, but the sky was 
cloudy, with a raw wind from the north-west. We did not 
feel the same hard, griping cold as the day previous, but a 
more penetrating chill. The same character of scenery 
continued, but with a more bleak and barren aspect, and 
the population became more scanty. The cloudy sky took 
iway what little green there was in the fir-trees, and they 
gloomed as black as Styx on either side of our road. The 
air was terribly raw and biting as it blew across the hollows 
and open plains. I did not cover my face, but kept up such 
a lively friction on my nose, to prevent it from freezing 
that in the evening I f )und the skin quite worn away. 

At Daglosten, the tnird station, we stopped an hour foi 



PROGRESS NORTHWARDS. — A STORM. 5? 

breakfast. It was a poverty-stricken place, and we could 
only get some fish-roes and salt meat. The people were all 
half-idiots, even to the postilion who drove us. We had 
some daylight for the fourth station, did the fifth by twilight 
and the sixth in darkness. The cold ( — 30°) was so keen 
that our postilions made good time, and we reached Sunnana 
on the Skeleftea River, 52 miles, soon after six o'clock. 
Here we were lodged in a large, barn-like room, so cold that 
we were obliged to put on our overcoats and sit against the 
stove. I began to be troubled with a pain in my jaw, from 
an unsound tooth — the commencement of a martyrdom from 
which I suffered for many days afterwards. The existence 
of nerves in one's teeth has always seemed to me a super- 
fluous provision of Nature, and 1 should have been well 
satisfied if she had omitted them in my case. 

The handmaiden called us soon after five o'clock, and 
brought us coffee while we were still in bed. This is the 
general custom here in the North, and is another point of 
contact with the South. The sky was overcast, with raw 
violent wind — mercury 1S° below zero. We felt the cold 
very keenly ; much more so than on Christmas day. The 
wind blew full in our teeth, and penetrated even beneath 
our furs. On setting out, we crossed the Skeleftea River 
by a wooden bridge, beyond which we saw, rising duskily in 
the uncertain twilight, a beautiful dome and lantern, crown- 
ing a white temple, built in the form of a Greek cross. It 
was the parish church of Skeleftea. Who could have ex- 
pected to find such an edifice, here, on the borders of Lap- 
land? The village about it contains many large and hand- 
some houses. This is one of the principal points of tr±d& 
and intercourse between the coast and the interior. 



8 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

The weather became worse as we advanced, traversing 
the low, broad hills, through wastes of dark pine forests, 
The wind cut like a sharp sword in passing the hollows, and 
the drifting snow began to fill the tracks. We were full 
two hours in making the ten miles to Frostkage, and the day- 
seemed scarcely nearer at hand. The leaden, lowering sky 
gave out no light, the forests were black and cold, the snow 
a dusky grey — such horribly dismal scenery I have rarely 
beheld. We warmed ourselves as well as we could, and 
started anew, having for postilions two rosy boys, who sang 
the whole way and played all sorts of mad antics with each 
other to keep from freezing. At the next station we drank 
large quantities of hot milk, flavored with butter, sugar and 
cinnamon, and then pushed on, with another chubby hop-o'- 
my-thumb as guide and driver. The storm grew worse and 
worse : the wind blew fiercely over the low hills, loaded with 
particles of snow, as fine as the point of a needle and as hard 
as crystal, which struck full on our eyeballs and stung thein 
so that we could scarcely see. I had great difficulty in keep- 
ing my face from freezing, and my companion found his 
cheek touched. 

By the time we reached Abyn, it blew a hurricane, and 
we were compelled to stop. It was already dusk, and our 
cosy little room was doubly pleasant by contrast with the 
wild weather outside. Our cheerful landlady, with her 
fresh complexion and splendid teeth, was very kind and at* 
tentive, and I got on very well in conversation, notwith- 
standing her broad dialect. She was much astonished at 
my asking for a bucket of cold water, for bathing. " Why/ J 
said she, " I always thought that if a person put his feet 



PKOGRESS NORTHWARDS.— A STORM. 59 

into cold water, in winter, he would die immediately." 
However, she supplied it, and was a little surprised to find 
me none the worse in the morning. 1 passed a terrible 
night from the pain in my face, and was little comforted, 
on rising, by the assurance that much snow had fallen. 
The mercury had risen to zero, and the wind still blew, 
although not so furiously as on the previous day. We 
therefore determined to set out, and try to reach Pitea. 
The landlady's son, a tall young Viking, with yellow locks 
hanging on his shoulders, acted as postilion, and took the 
lead. We started at nine, and found it heavy enough at 
first. It was barely light enough to see our way. and we 
floundered slowly along through deep drifts for a mile, 
when w° met the snow-plows, after which our road became 
easier. Tljese plows are wooden frames, shaped somewhat 
like the bow of a ship — in fact, I have seen very fair clipper 
models among them — about fifteen feet long by ten feet 
wide at the base, and so light that, if the snow is not too 
deep, one horse can manage them. The farmers along the 
road are obliged to turn out at six o'clock in the morning 
whenever the snow falls or drifts, and open a passage for 
travellers. Thus, in spite of the rigorous winter, commu- 
nication is never interrupted, and the snow-road, at last, 
from frequent plowing, becomes the finest sleighing track in 
the world. 

The wind blew so violently, however, that the furrows 
were soon filled up, and even the track of the baggage-sled, 
fifty yards in advance, was covered. There was one hollow 
where the drifts of loose snow were five or six feet deep, and 
here we were obliged to get out and struggle across, sinking 



60 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

to our loins at every step. It is astonishing how soon one 
becomes hardened to the cold. Although the mercury stood 
at zero, with a violent storm, we rode with our faces fully 
exposed, frost-bites and all, and even drove with bare hands, 
without the least discomfort. But of the scenery we saw ' 
this day, I can give no description. There was nothing but 
long drifts and waves of spotless snow, some dim, dark, 
spectral fir-trees on either hand, and beyond that a wild 
chaos of storm. The snow came fast and blinding, beating 
full in our teeth. It was impossible to see ; the fine parti- 
cles so stung our eyeballs, that we could not look ahead. 
My eyelashes were loaded with snow, which immediately 
turned to ice and froze the lids together, unless 1 kept them 
in constant motion. The storm hummed and buzzed through 
the black forests ; we were all alone on the road, for even 
the pious Swedes would not turn out to church on such a 
day. It was terribly sublime and desolate, and I enjoyed it 
amazingly. We kept warm, although there was a crust of 
ice a quarter of an inch thick on our cheeks, and the ice in 
our beards prevented us from opening our mouths. At one 
o'clock, we reached the second station, Gefre, unrecognisable 
by our nearest friends. Our eyelashes were weighed down 
with heavy fringes of frozen snow, there were icicles an inch 
long hanging; to the eaves of our moustaches, and the hand- 
kerchiefs which wrapped our faces were frozen fast to the 
flesh. The skin was rather improved by this treatment, but 
it took us a great while to thaw out. 

A-t Gefre, we got some salt meat and hot milk, and then 
started on our long stage of fifteen miles to Pitea. The 
wind had moderated somewhat, but the snow still fell fast 



t'ROGUESS NORTHWARDS. — I s?l\KM. tfl 

and thick. We were again blinded and frozen up more 
firmly than ever, cheeks and all, so that our eyes and lips 
were the only features to be seen. After plunging along 
*br more than two hours tnrough dreary woods, we came 
jpon the estuary of the Pitea River, where our course was 
marked out by young fir-trees, planted in the ice. The 
world became a blank ; there was snow around, above and 
below, and but for these marks a man might have driven at 
random until he froze. For three miles or more, we rode 
over the solid gulf, and then took the woods on the opposite 
shore. The way seemed almost endless. Our feet grew 
painfully cold, our eyes smarted from the beating of the fine 
snow, and my swollen jaw tortured me incessantly. Finally 
lights appeared ahead through the darkness, but another 
halt' hour elapsed before we saw houses on both sides of us. 
There was a street, at last, then a large mansion, and to 
our great py the >kjutsbonde turned into the court-yard of 
an inc. 
4 



02 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 



CHAPTER VI. 

JOURNEY FROM P1TEA TO HAPARANDA. 

My jaw was so painful on reaching Pitea, that I 
about in torment the whole night, utterly unable to sleep. 
The long northern night seemed as if it would never come 
to an end, and I arose in the morning much more fatigued 
and exhausted than when I lay down. It was 6° below 
zero, and the storm still blowing, but the cold seemed to 
relieve my face a little, and so we set out. The roads were 
heavy, but a little broken, and still led over hills and 
through interminable forests of mingled fir and pine, in 
the dark, imperfect day. I took but little note of the 
Bcenery, but was so drowsy and overcome, that Braisted at 
last filled the long baggage-sled with hay, and sat at the 
rear, so that I could lie stretched out, with my head upon 
his lap. Here, in spite of the cold and wind, I lay in a 
warm, stupid half-sleep. 

It was dark when we reached Ersnas, whence we had 
twelve miles to Old Lulea, with tired horses, heavy roads, 
and a lazy driver. I lay down again, dosed as usual, and 
tried to forget my torments. So passed three hours; the 
night had long set in, with a clear sky, 13° below zero, and 



JOURNEY FROM PITEA TO HAPARAXDA. 63 

a sharp wind blowing. All at once an exclamation from 
Braisted aroused me. I opened my eyes, as I lay in his lap, 
looked upward, and saw a narrow belt or scarf of silver fire 
stretching directly across the zenith, with its loose, frayed 
3nds slowly swaying to and fro down the slopes of the sky 
Presently it began to waver, bending back and forth, 
sometimes slowly, sometimes with a quick, springing motion, 
as if testing its elasticity. Now it took the shape of a bow 
now undulated into Hogarth's line of beauty, brightening 
and fading in its sinuous motion, and finally formed a 
shepherd's crook, the end of whicli suddenly began to 
separate and fall off, as if driven by a strong wind, until 
the whole belt shot away in long, drifting lines of fiery 
snow. It then gathered again into a dozen dancing frag- 
ments, which alternately advanced and retreated, shot 
hither and thither, against and across each other, blazed out 
in yellow and rosy gleams or paled again, playing a thous 
and fantastic pranks, as if guided by some wild whim. 

We lay silent, with upturned faces, watching this won- 
derful spectacle. Suddenly, the scattered lights ran together, 
as by a common impulse, joined their bright ends, twisted 
them through each other, and fell in a broad, luminous 
curtain straight downward through the air until its fringed 
hem swung apparently but a few yards over oar heads. 
This phenomenon was so unexpected and startling, that for 
a moment T thought our faces would be touched by the 
skirts of the glorious auroral drapery. It did not follow 
the spheric curve of the firmament, but hung plumb from 
the zenith, falling, apparently, millions of leagues through 
the air, its folds gathered together among the star's and its 



61 NORTHERN TRAV1 L. 

embroidery of flame sweeping the earth and shedding a pale, 
unearthly radiance over the wastes of sncw. A moment 
afterwards and it was again drawn up, parted, waved its 
flambeaux and shot its lances hither and thither, advancing 
and retreating as before. Anything so strange, so capricious 
so wonderful, so gloriously beautiful, I scarcely hope to see 
again. 

By this time we came upon the broad Lulea River, and 
were half an hour traversing its frozen surface, still watch- 
ing the snow above us, which gradually became fainter and 
less active. Finally we reached the opposite shore, drove 
up a long slope, through a large village of stables, and past 
the imposing church of Old Lulea to the inn. It was now 
nearly eight o'clock, very cold, and I was thoroughly 
exhausted. But the inn was already full of travellers, and 
there was no place to lay our heads. The landlord, a 
sublimely indiiferent Swede, coolly advised us to go on to 
Perso, ten miles distant. I told him I had not slept for two 
nights, but he merely shrugged his shoulders, repeated his 
advice, and offered to furnish horses at once, to get us off. 
It was a long, cold, dreary ride, and I was in a state of 
semi-consciousness the whole time. We reached Perso about 
eleven, found the house full of travellers, but procured two 
small beds in a small room with another man in it, and 
went to sleep without supper. I was so thoroughly worn 
out that I got about three hours' rest, in spite of my pain. 

We took coffee in bed at seven, and started for Ranbyn, 
on the Ranea River. The day was lowering, temperature 
8£° below zero. The country was low, slightly undulating 
with occasional wide views to the north, over the inlets of 
the gulf, and vast wide tracts of forest. The settlements 



JOURNEY FROM PITEA TO HAPARANDA. 65 

were still as frequent as ever, but there was little apparent 
cultivation, except flax. Ranbyn is a large village, with a 
stately church. The people were putting up booths for a 
fair (a fair in the open air, in lat. 65° N., with the mercury 
freezing !), which explained the increased travel on the road, 
We kept on to Hvita for breakfast, thus getting north of 
the latitude of Tornea; thence our road turned eastward at 
right angles around the head of the Bothman Gulf. Much 
snow had Mien, but the road had been ploughed, and we 
had a tolerable track, except when passing sleds, which 
sometimes gave us an overturn. 

We now had uninterrupted forest scenery between the 
stations — and such scenery ! It is almost impossible to 
paint the glory of those winter forests. Every tree, laden 
with the purest snow, resembles a Gothic fountain of bronze, 
covered with frozen spray, through which only suggestive 
glimpses of its delicate tracery can be obtained. From 
every rise we looked over thousands of such mimic fountains, 
shooting, low or high, from their pavements of ivory and 
alabaster. It was an enchanted wilderness — white, silent, 
gleaming, and filled with inexhaustible forms of beauty. 
To what shall I liken those glimpses under the boughs, into 
the depths of the forest, where the snow destroyed all 
perspective, and brought the remotest fairy nooks and 
coverts, too lovely and fragile to seem cold, into the glitter- 
ing foreground? "Wonderful!" "glorious!" I could only 
exclaim, in breathless admiration. Once, by the roadside, 
vre saw an Arctic ptarmigan, as white ab the snow, with 
ruby eyes that sparkled like jewels as he moved slowly and 
silently along, not frightened in the least. 



66 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

The sun set a little after one o'clock and we pashed on 
to reach the Kaxix River the same evening. At the last 
• station we got a boy postilion and two lazy horses, and were 
three hours and a half on the road, with a temperature oi 
20° below zero. My feet became like ice, which increased 
the pain in my face, and I began to feel faint and sick with 
bo much suffering and loss of rest. The boy aggravated us 
so much by his laziness, that Braisted ran ahead and cuffed 
his ears* after which he made better speed. After a drive 
through interminable woods, we came upon the banks of the 
Kalix, which were steep and fringed with splendid firs. 
Then came the village of Mansbyn, where, thank Heaven, 
we got something to eat, a warm room, and a bed. 

While we were at supper, two travellers arrived, one of 
whom, a well-made, richly-dressed young fellow, was ushered 
into our room. He was a briik-patron (iron-master), so the 
servant informed us, and from his superfine broad-cloth, 
rings, and the immense anchor-chain which attached him 
to his watch, appeared to be doing a thriving business. He 
had the Norse bloom on his face, a dignified nose, and 
English whiskers flanking his smoothly-shaven chin. His 
air was flushed and happy ; he was not exactly drunk, but 
comfortably within that gay and cheerful vestibule beyond 
which lies the chamber of horrors. He listened to our con- 
versation for some time, and finally addressed me in imper- 
fect English. This led to mutual communications, and a 
declaration of our character, and object in travel — nothing 
of which would he believe. " Nobody can possibly come 
here for pleasure," said he; "I know better; you have a 
secret political mission." Our amusement at this cnlj 



JOURNEY FROM PITEA TO HAPARANDA. 67 

strengthened him in his suspicions. Nevertheless he called 
for a bottle of port wine, which, when it came ; turned out 
to be bad Malaga, and insisted on drinking a welcome, 
" You are in latitude 66° north," said he; " on the Kalix, 
where no American has ever been before, and I shall call my 
friend to give a skal to your country. We have been tc 
the church, where my friend is stationed." 

With that he went out, and soon returned with a short, 
Btoufc, broad-faced, large-headed man of forty or thereabouts 
His manner was perfectly well-bred and self-possessed, and 
I took him to be a clergyman, especially as the iron-master 
addressed him as "Brother Horton." "Now," said he ? 
"welcome to 66° north, and prosperity to free America! 
Are you for Buchanan or Fremont?" Brother Horton 
kept a watchful eye upon his young friend, but cheerfully 
joined in the sentiment. I gave in return: " Skal to 
Sweden and the Swedish people," and hoped to get rid of 
our jolly acquaintance; but he was not to be shaken off. 
"You don't know me," he said; "and I don't know you — 
but you are something more than you seem to be; you are 
a political character." Just then Braisted came in with the 
thermometer, and announced 24° of cold (Reaumur). 
" Thousand devils !" exclaimed Brother Horton (and now I 
was convinced that he was not a clergyman), " what a ther- 
mometer ! How cold it makes the weather ! Would you 
part with it if I were to give you money in return ?" I 
declined, stating that it was impossible for us to procure so 
cold a thermometer in the north, and we wanted to have as 
tow a temperature as could be obtained. 

This seemed to puzzle the iron-master, who studied awhile 



68 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

upon it, and then returned to the subject of my politico 
mission. "I suppose you speak French/' said he; "it is 
necessary in diplomacy. I can speak it also" — which he 
began to do, in a bungling way. 1 answered in the same 
language, but he soon gave up the attempt and tried 
German. I changed also, and, finding that he had ex- 
hausted his philology, of which he was rather proud, espe- 
cially as Brother Horton knew nothing but Swedish, deter* 
mined to have a little fun. " Of course you know Italian," 
said I; "it is more musical than German," and forthwith 
addressed him in that language. He reluctantly confessed 
his ignorance. " Oh, well," I continued, " Spanish is equally 
agreeable to me ;" and took up that tongue before he could 
reply. His face grew more and more blank and bewildered. 
" The Oriental languages are doubtless familiar to yuu ;" I 
persisted, " I have had no practice in Arabic for some time," 
and overwhelmed him with Egyptian salutations. I then 
tried him with Hindustanee, which exhausted my stock, but 
concluded by giving him the choice of Malay, Tartar, or 
Thibetan. " Come, come,' said Brother Horton, taking his 
arm as he stood staring and perplexed — "the horses are 
ready/' With some difficulty he was persuaded to leave, 
after shaking hands with us, and exclaiming, many times, 
te You are a very seldom man !" 

When Wv awoke, the temperature had risen to 2° above 
zero, with a tremendous snow-storm blowing. As we were 
preparing to set out, a covered sled drove in from the north, 
§uth two Swedish naval officers, whose vessel had been frozen 
in at Cronstadt, and who had been obliged to return home 
through Finland, up the eastern coast of the B^thnian Gulf. 



JOURNEY FROM PITEA TO HAFARAXDA. (fy 

The captain, who spoke excellent English, informed me 
that they were in about the same latitude as we ; on Christ- 
mas day, on the opposite side of the gulf, and had experienced 
the same degree of cold. Both of them had their nose3 
severely frozen. We were two hours and a half in travel- 
ling to the first station, seven miles, as the snow was falling 
in blinding quantities, and the road was not yet ploughed 
out. All the peck i met were on runners, but even 

with their snow skates, five feet long, they sank deep enough 
to make their progress very slow and toilsome. 

By the time we reached y face was very much 

swollen and inflamed, and as it v ssible to make the 

next stage by daylight, we v termined to stop there. 

The wind blew a hurricane, the hard snow crystals lashed 
the windows and made a gray chaos of all out-of-doors, but 
we had a warm, cosy, carpeted room within, a capital din- 
ner in the afternoon, and a bottle of genuine London porter 
with our evening pipe. So we passed the last day of a. d. 
1S5G. grateful to God for all the b! rhich the year 

had brought us. and for the comfort and shelter we enjoyed, 
in that Polar wilderness of storm and snow. 

On New Year's morning it blew less, and the temperature 

was comparatively mild, s igh the road was very 

heavy, we started again. Nasby is the last Swedish station, 

the Finnish frontier, which is an abrupt separation of races 

and tongues, being at the north-western corner of the Both- 

nian Gulf. Tn spite of the constant intercourse which now 

exists between Norrland and. the narrow strip of Finnish 

soil which remains to Sweden, there has been no perceptible 

assimilation of the two races. At Nasby, all is pure Swe- 
4* 



70 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

dish; at Sangis. twelve miles distant; everything is Finnish 
The blue eyes and fair hair, the lengthened oval of the face, 
and slim, straight form disappear. You see, instead, square 
faces, dark eyes, low foreheads, and something cf an Orien- 
tal fire and warmth in the movements. The language is 
totally dissimilar, and even the costume, though of the same 
general fashion, presents many noticeable points of differ- 
ence. The women wear handkerchiefs of some bright color 
bound over the forehead and under the chin, very similar to- 
those worn by the Armenian women in Asia Minor. On t , 
first coming among them, the Finns impressed me as a less 
frank and open hearted, but more original and picturesque, • Jl 
race than the Swedes. It is exceedingly curious and inter- 
esting to find such a flavour of the Orient on the borders of ' . 
the Frigid Zone. 

The roads were very bad, and our drivers and horses 
provokingly slow, but we determined to push on to Hapa- 
randa the same night. I needed rest and medical aid, my 
jaw by this time being so swollen that I had great diniculty 
in eating — a state of things which threatened to diminish 
my supply of fuel, and render me sensitive to the cold. We 
reached Nickala, the last station, at seven o'clock. Beyond 
this, the road was frightfully deep in places. We could 
scarcely make any headway, and were frequently overturned 
headlong into the drifts. The driver was a Finn, who did 
not understand a word of Swedish, and all our urging was 
of no avail. We went on and on, in the moonlight, over 
arms of the gulf, through forests, and then over ice again — 
a flat, monotonous country, with the same dull features re- 
peated again and again, At half-past nine, a large white 



JOURNEY FROM PITEA TO HAPARANDA. 7J 

church announced our approach to Haparanda, and soon 
afterwards we drove up to the inn, which was full of New 
Fear carousers. The landlord gave us quarters in the 
same room with an old Norrlander, who was very drunk, 
and annoyed us not a little until we got into bed and pre- 
tended to sleep. It was pretence nearly the whole night, on 
my part, for my torture was still kept up. The next morn- 
ing I called upon Dr. Wretholm, the physician of the 
place, — not without some misgivings, — but his prescription 
of a poultice of mallow leaves, a sudorific and an opiate, 
restored my confidence, and I cheerfully resigned myself 
to a rest of two or three days, before proceeding further 
northward* 



72 



NORTHERN TRAVEL 



CHAPTER VII. 

CROSSING THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 

1 was obliged to remain three day3 in Haparanda, applying 
poultices, gargles, and liniments, according to the doctors 
instructions. As my Swedish was scarcely sufficient for the 
comprehension of prescriptions, or medical technicalities in 
general, a written programme of my treatment was furnished 
to Fredrika, the servant-maid, who was properly impressed 
with the responsibility thereby devolving upon her. Fred- 
rika, no doubt, thought that my life was in her hands, and 
nothing could exceed the energy with which she undertook 
its preservation. Punctually to the minute appeared the 
prescribed application, and, if she perceived or suspected any 
dereliction on my part, it was sure to be reported to the 
doctor at his next visit. I had the taste of camomile and 
mallows in my mouth from morning till night ; the skin of 
my jaw blistered under the scorching of ammonia ; but the 
final result was, that I was cured, as the doctor and Fredrika 
had determined. 

Thii good-hearted girl was a genuine specimen of the 
N'vrthern Swedish female. Of medium height, plump, but 



CROSSING THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 73 

Dot stout, with a rather slender waist and expansive hips, 
and a foot which stepped firmly and nimbly at the same 
time, she was as cheerful a body as one could wish to see. 
Her hair was of that silky blonde so common in Sweden 
her eyes a clear, pale blue, her nose straight and well 
formed, her cheeks of the delicate pink of a wild-rose leaf, 
and her teeth so white, regular and perfect that I am sure 
they would make her fortune in America. Always cheerful, 
kind and active, she had, nevertheless, a hard life of it; she 
was alike cook, chambermaid, and hostler, and had a cross 
mistress to boot. She made our fires in the morning dark- 
ness, and brought us our early coffee while we yet lay in bed, 
in accordance with the luxurious habits of the Arctic zone. 
Then, until the last drunken guest was silent, towards mid- 
night, there was no respite from labour. Although suffering 
from a distressing ccugh, she had the out-door as well as the 
in-door duties to discharge, and we saw her in a sheepskin 
jacket harnessing horses, in a temperature 30° below zero. 
The reward of such a service was possibly about eight 
American dollars a year. When, on leaving, I gave her 
about as much as one of our hotel servants would expect for 
answering a question, the poor girl was overwhelmed with 
gratitude, and even the stern landlady was so impressed by 
my generosity that she insisted on lending us a sheepskin 
or our feet, saying we were " good men." 

There is something exceedingly primitive and unsophisti- 
eated in the manners of these Northern people — a straight- 
forward hone&ty, which takes the honesty of others for 
granted — a latent kindness and good-will which may at first 
be overlooked, because it is not demonstrative, and a totai 



74 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

unconsciousness of what is called, in highly civilized circles, 
" propriety." The very freedom of manners which, in some 
countries, might denote laxity of morals, is here the evident 
stamp of their purity. The thought has often recurred to 
me — which is the most truly pure and virginal nature, thf 
fastidious American girl, who blushes at the sight of a pair 
of boots outside a gentleman's bedroom door, and who 
requires that certain unoffending parts of the body and 
articles of clothing should be designated by delicately cir- 
cumlocutions terms, or the simple-minded Swedish women, 
who come into our bedrooms with coffee, and make our fires 
while we get up and dress, coming and going during all the 
various stages of the toilet, with the frankest unconscious- 
ness of impropriety ? This is modesty in its healthy and 
natural development, not in those morbid forms which 
suggest an imagination ever on the alert for prurient images. 
Nothing has confirmed my impression of the virtue of the 
Northern Swedes more than this fact, and I have rarely felt 
more respect for woman or more faith in the inherent purity 
of her nature. 

We had snug quarters in Haparanda, and our detention 
was therefore by no means irksome. A large room, carpeted, 
protected from the outer cold by double windows, and heated 
by an immense Russian stove, was allotted to us. We had 
two beds, one of which became a broad sofa during the day, 
a backgammon table, the ordinary appliances for washing, 
and. besides a number of engravings on the walls, our win- 
dow commanded a full view of Tornea, and the ice-track 
across the river, where hundreds of persons daily passed to 
and fro. The eastern window showed us the Arctic dawn, 



CROSSING THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 75 

growing and brightening through its wonderful gradations 
of color, for four hours, when the pale orange sun appeared 
above the distant houses, to slide along their roofs for two 
hours, and then dip again. We had plentiful meals, con- 
sisting mostly of reindeer meat, with a sauce of Swedish 
cranberries, potatoes, which had been frozen, but were still 
palatable, salmon roes, soft bread in addition to the black 
shingles of jladbrdd, English porter, and excellent Umea 
beer. In fact, in no country inn of the United States could 
we have been more comfortable. For the best which the 
place afforded, during four days, with a small provision for 
the journey, we paid about seven dollars. 

The day before our departure, I endeavored to obtain 
some information concerning the road to Lapland, but was 
disappointed. The landlord ascertained that there were 
skjuts, or relays of post-horses, as far as Muonioniski, 210 
English miles, but beyond this I could only learn that the 
people were all Finnish, spoke no Swedish, were mi.-rcrably 
poor, and could give us nothing to eat. 1 was told that a 
certain official personage at the apothecary's sho^ spoke 
German, and hastened thither ; but the official, a dark-eyed, 
olive-faced Finn, could not understand my first 'juestion. 
The people even seemed entirely ignorant of the geography 
s>f the country beyond Upper Tornea, or Matareigi, forty 
miles off. The doctor's wife, a buxom, motherly kdy, who 
Beemed to feel quite an interest in our undertaking, and was 
as kind and obliging as such women always are, procured 
for us a supply of fladbr&d made of rye, and delightfully 
crisp and hard — and this was the substance of our prepara* 
tions. Reindeer mittens were not to be found, nor a rein- 



76 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

deer skin to cover our feet, so we relied, as before, on p.lentjf 
of hay and my Scotch plaid. We might, perhaps, have had 
better success in Tornea, but I knew no one there who 
would be likely to assist us, and we did not even visit the 
old place. We had taken the precaution of getting the 
Russian vise, together with a small stock of roubles, at 
Stockholm, but found that it was quite unnecessary. No 
passport is required for entering Tornea, or travelling op 
the Russian side of the frontier. 

Trusting to luck, which is about the best plan after all, 
we started from Haparanda at noon, on the 5th of January. 
The day was magnificent, the sky cloudless, and resplendent 
as polished steel, and the mercury 31° below zero. Thr 
sun, scarcely more than the breadth of his disc above the 
horizon, shed a faint orange light over the broad, level 
snow-plains, and the bluish- white hemisphere of the Both- 
nian Gulf, visible beyond Tornea. The air was perfectly 
still, and exquisitely cold and bracing, despite the sharp 
grip it took upon my nose and ears. These Arctic days, 
short as they are, have a majesty of their own — a splendor, 
subdued though it be ; a breadth and permanence of hue, 
imparted alike to the sky and to the snowy earth, as if 
tinted glass was held before your eyes. I find myself at a 
loss how to describe these effects, or the impression they 
produce upon the traveller'^ mood. Certainly, it is the 
very reverse of that depression which accompanies the Polar 
night, and which even the absence of any real daylight 
might be considered sufficient to produce. 

Our road was well beaten, but narrow, and we had great 
difficulty in passing the many hay and wood teams which 



CROSSING rHE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 77 

met us, on account of the depth of the loose snow on either 
side. We had several violent overturns at such times, one 
of which occasioned us the loss of our beloved pipe — a 
loss which rendered Braisted disconsolate for the rest of the 
day. We had but one between us, and the bereavement 
was not slight. Soon after leaving Haparanda, we passed a 
small white obelisk, with the words "Russian Frontier'' 
upon it. The town of Tornea, across the frozen river, 
looked really imposing, with the sharp roof and tall spire of 
its old church rising above the line of low red buildings. 
Campbell, I remember, says, 

" Cold as the rocks on Tomeo's hoary brow," 

with the same disregard of geography which makes him 
grow palm trees along the Susquehanna River. There was 
Tornea; but 1 looked in vain for the " hoary brow." Not 
a hill within sight, nor a rock within a circuit of ten miles, 
but one unvarying level, like the western shore of the 
Adriatic, formed by the deposits of the rivers and the 
retrocession of the sea. 

Our road led up the left bank of the river, both sides of 
which were studded with neat little villages. The country 
was well cleared and cultivated, and appeared so populous 
and flourishing that I could scarcely realise in what part of 
the world we were. The sun set. at a quarter past one, but 
for two hours the whole southern heaven was superb in its 
hues of rose and orange. The sheep skin lent us by our 
landlady kept our feet warm, and we only felt the cold in 
our faces ; my nose, especially, which, having lost a coat of 
skin, was very fresh and tender, requiring unusual care 



78 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

At three o'clock, when we reached Kuckula, the first station 
the northern sky was one broad flush of the purest violet^ 
melting into lilac at the zenith, where it met the fiery skirti 
of sunset. 

We refreshed ourselves with hot milk, and pushed ahead 
with better horses. At four o'clock it was bright moonlight 
with the stillest air. We got on bravely over the level 
beaten road, and in two hours reached Korpikyla. a larg 
new inn, where we found very tolerable accommodations. 
Our beds were heaps of reindeer skins ; a frightfully ugly Fin- 
nish girl, who knew a few words of Swedish, prepared us a 
supper of tough meat, potatoes, and ale. Everything was 
now pure Finnish, and the first question of the girl, 
u Hvarifran kommar du 9" (Where dost thou come from ?) 
Bhowed an ignorance of the commonest Swedish form of 
address. She awoke us with a cup of coffee in the morning, 
and negotiated for us the purchase of a reindeer skin, which 
we procured for something less than a dollar. The hus- 
bonde (house-peasant, as the landlord is called here) made 
no charge for our entertainment, but said we might give 
what we pleased. I offered, at a venture, a sum equal to 
about fifty cents, whereupon he sent the girl to say that he 
thanked us most heartily. 

The next day was a day to be remembered : such a glory 
of twilight splendors for six full hours was beyond all the 
charms of daylight in any zone. We started at seven, with 
a temperature of 20° below zero, still keeping up the left 
bank of the Tornea. The country now rose into bold hills, 
and the features of the scenery became broad and majestic 
The northern sky was again pure violet, and a pale red 



CROSSING THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 7S 

tinge from the dawn rested on the tops of the snowy hills 
The prevailing color of the sky slowly brightened into lilac # 
then into pink, then rose color, which again gave way to a 
flood of splendid orange when the sun appeared. Every 
change of color affected the tone of the landscape. The 
woods, so wrapped in snow that not a single green needle 
was to be seen, took by turns the hues of the sky, and 
seemed to give out, rather than to reflect, the opalescent 
lustre of the morning. The sunshine brightened instead of 
dispelling these effects. At noon the sun's disc was not 
more than 1° above the horizon, throwing a level golden 
light on the hills. The north, before us, was as blue as the 
Mediterranean, and the vault of heaven, overhead, canopied 
us with pink. Every object was glorified and transfigured 
i/i the magic glow. 

At the first station we got some hot milk, with raw 
salmon, shingle bread and frozen butter. Our horses were 
good, and we drove merrily along, up the frozen Tornea. 
The roads were filled with people going to church, probably 
to celebrate some religious anniversary. Fresh ruddy faces 
had they, firm features, strong frames and resolute carriage, 
but the most of them were positively ugly, and, by contrast 
with the frank Swedes, their expression was furtive and 
sinister. Near Packila we passed a fine old church of red 
brick, with a very handsome belfry. At Niemis we changed 
horses in ten minutes, and hastened on up the bed of the 
Tornea to Matarengi, where we should reach the Arctic 
Circle. The hills rose higher, with fine sweeping outlines 
and the river was still half a mile broad — a plain of solid 
snow, with the track marked out by bushes. We kept a 



SO NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

sharp look-out for the mountain of Avasaxa, one of the 
stations of Celsius, Maupertius, and the French Academi- 
cians, who came here in 1736, to make observations deter- 
mining the exact form of the earth. Through this moun* 
tain, it is said, the Arctic Circle passes, though our maps 
were neither sufficiently minute nor correct to determine 
the point. We took it for granted, however, as a mile one 
way or the other could make but little difference ; and as 
Matarengi lies due west of Avasaxa, across the river, wc 
decided to stop there and take dinner on the Arctic Circle. 

The increase of villages on both banks, with the appear- 
ance of a large church, denoted our approach to Matarengi, 
and we saw at once that the tall, gently-rounded, isolated 
hill opposite, now blazing with golden snow, could be none 
other than Avasaxa. Here we were, at last, entering the 
Arctic Zone, in the dead of winter — the realization of a 
dream which had often flashed across my mind, when loung- 
ing under the tropical palms ; so natural is it for one ex- 
treme to suggest the opposite. I took our bearings with a 
compass-ring, as we drove forward, and as the summit of 
Avasaxa bore due east we both gave a shout which startled 
our postilion and notably quickened the gait of our horses. 
It was impossible to toss our caps, for they were not only 
tied upon our heads, but frozen fast to our beards. So here 
we were at last, in the true dominions of Winter. A mild 
ruler he had been to us, thus far, but he proved a despot 
before we were done with him. 

Soon afterwards, we drove into the inn at Matarengi, 
which was full of country people, who had come to attend 
church. The landlord, a sallow, watery-eyed Finn, wbc 



CROSSING THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. 81 

knew a few words of Swedish, gave us a room in an adjoin- 
ing house, and furnished a dinner of boiled fish and barley 
mush, to which was added a bottle labelled " Dry Madeira/' 
brought from Haparanda for the occasion. At a shop ad* 
joining, Braisted found a serviceable pipe, so that nothing 
was wanting to complete our jubilee. We swallowed the 
memory of all who. were dear to us, in the dubious beverage, 
inaugurated our Arctic pipe, which we proposed to take 
home as a souvenir of the place, and set forward in the 
most cheery mood. 

Our road now crossed the river and kept up the Russian 
side to a place with the charming name of Torakankorwa. 
The afternoon twilight was even more wonderful than 
that of the forenoon. There were broad bands of purple, 
pure crimson, and intense yellow, all fusing together into 
fiery orange at the south, while the north became a semi- 
vault of pink, then lilac, and then the softest violet. The 
dazzling Arctic hills participated in this play of colors, 
which did not fade, as in the South, but stayed, and stayed, 
as if God wished to compensate by this twilight glory for 
the loss of the day. Nothing in Italy, nothing in the 
Tropics, equals the magnificence of the Polar skies. The 
twilight gave place to a moonlight scarcely less brilliant. 
Our road was hardly broken, leading through deep snow, 
sometimes on the river, sometimes through close little glens, 
hedged in with firs drooping with snow — fairy Arctic soli 
tudes, white, silent and mysterious 

By seven o'clock we reached a station called Juoxengi 
The place was wholly Finnish, and the landlord, who did 
not understand a word of Swedish, endeavoured to make us 



82 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

go on to the next station. We pointed to the beds and 
quietly carried in our baggage. I made the usual signs foi 
eating, which speedily procured us a pail of sour milk, bread 
and butter, and two immense tin drinking horns of sweet 
milk, The people seemed a little afraid of us, and kept 
away. Our postilion was a silly fellow, who could not un- 
derstand whether his money was correct. In the course of 
our stenographic conversation, I learned that " caz" signi- 
fied two. When I gave him his drink-money he said 
" ketox !" and on going out the door, " huweste P 9 — so that 
I at least discovered the Finnish for " Thank you !" and 
" Good-bye!" This, however, was not sufficient to order 
horses the next morning. We were likewise in a state of 
delightful uncertainty as to our future progress, but this 
very uncertainty gave a zest to our situation, and it would 
have been difficult to find two jollier men with frozen noses. 



AftVRSTlttES AMOKG THE FINNS &] 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ADVENTURES AMONG THE FINNS. 

We drank so much milk (for want of more solid food) at 
Juoxen^i, that in spite of sound sleep under our sheepskin 
blankets, we both awoke with headaches in the morning, 
The Finnish landlord gave me to understand, by holding up 
his fore-linger, and pronouncing the word " fix" that I waa 
to pay one rigsdaler (about 26 cents), for our entertainment, 
and was overcome with grateful surprise when I added a 
trifle more. We got underway by six o'clock, when the 
night was just at its darkest, and it was next to impossible 
to discern any track on the spotless snow. Trusting to good 
luck to escape overturning, we followed in the wake of the 
skjutsbonde, who had mounted our baggage sled upon one 
of the country sledges, and rode perched upon his lofty seat. 
Our horses were tolerable, but we had eighteen miles to 
Pello, the next station, which we reached about ten o'clock. 

Our road was mostly upon the Tornea River, sometimes 
taking to the woods on either side, to cut off bends. The 
morn was hours in dawning, with the same splendid tran- 
sitions of colour. The forests were indescribable in their 
silence, whiteness, and wonderful variety of snowy adorn- 



&,| NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

tnent. The weeping birches leaned over the road, and 
formed white fringed arches ; the firs wore mantles of ermine, 
and ruffs and tippets of the softest swan's down. Snow, 
wind, and frost had worked the most marvellous transfor- 
mations in the forms of the forest. Here were kneeling 
nuns, with their arms hanging listlessly by their sides, and 
the white cowls falling over their faces: there lay a warrior's 
helmet ; lace curtains, torn and ragged* hung from the 
points of little Gothic spires; caverns, lined with sparry 
incrustations, silver palm-leaves, doors, loop-holes, arches 
and arcades were thrown together in a fantastic confusion 
and mingled with the more decided forms of the larger trees, 
which, even, were trees but in form, so completely were they 
wrapped in their dazzling disguise. It was an enchanted 
land, where you hardly dared to breathe, lest a breath might 
break the spell. 

There was still little change in the features of the country 
except that it became wilder and more rugged, and the set 
tlements poorer and further apart. There were low hills on 
either side, wildernesses of birch and fir, and floors of level 
snow over the rivers and marshes. On approaching Pello, 
we saw our first rein-deer, standing beside a hut. He was 
a large, handsome animal ; his master, who wore a fur dress, 
we of course set down for a Lapp. At the inn a skinny old 
hag, who knew a dozen words of Swedish, got us some bread, 
milk, and raw frozen salmon, which, with the aid of a great 
deal of butter, sufficed us for a meal. Our next stage was 
to Kardis, sixteen miles, which we made in four hours. 
While in the midst of a forest on the Swedish side, we fell 
in with a herd of rein-deer, attended by half-a-dozen Lappa 



ADVENTURES AMONG THE FINNS. 85 

They came tramping along through the snow, about fifty in 
number, including a dozen which ran loose. The others 
were harnessed to pulks, the canoe-shaped rein-deer sledges, 
many of which were filled with stores and baggage. The 
Lapps were rather good-looking young fellows, with a 
bright, coppery, orange complexion, and were by no means 
so ill-favoured, short, and stunted as I had imagined. One 
of them was, indeed, really handsome, with his laughing 
eyes, sparkling teeth, and a slender, black moustache. 

We were obliged to wait a quarter-of-an-hour while the 
herd passed, and then took to the river again. The effect 
of sunset on the snow was marvellous — the spotless mounds 
and drifts, far and near, being stained with soft rose colour, 
until they resembled nothing so much as heaps of straw- 
berry ice. At Kardis the people sent for an interpreter, 
who was a young man, entirely blind. He helped us to get 
our horses, although we were detained an hour, as only one 
horse is kept in readiness at these stations, and the neigh- 
bourhood must be scoured to procure another. I employed 
the time in learning a few Finnish words — the whole tra- 
velling-stock, in fact, on which I made the journey to 
Muonioniska.- That the reader may see how few words of 
a strange language will enable him to travel, as well as to 
give a sample of Finnish, 1 herewith copy my whole voca- 
bulary : 



one 


fix 


eight 


kahexa 


two 


cax 


nine 


ohexa 


three 


kolma 


ten 


kiumene 


four 


nelia 


a half 


puoli 
nevorste 


tive 


viis 


horses 


six 


oos 


immediately 


varsin 


iwven 


settima 


ready 


walmis 



86 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 



drive on ! 


ayd perli ! 


how much ? 


guinga palia 1 


a mile 


peligorma 


bread 


leba 


meat 


liha 



butter 


voy 


fire 


valkar 


a bed 


sangu (Swedish) 


good 


htiva 


bad 


pdha 



milk maito 



We kept on our way up the river, in the brilliant after^ 
noon moonlight. The horses were slow ; so were the two 
skjutsbonder, to whom I cried in vain: "Ayd perli !*' 
Braisted with difficulty restrained his inclination to cufl 
their ears. Hour after hour went by, and we grew more 
and more hungry, wrathful and impatient. About eight 
o'clock they stopped below a house on the Russian side, 
pitched some hay to the horses, climbed the bank, and sum- 
moned us to follow. We made our way with some difficulty 
through the snow, and entered the hut, which proved to be 
the abode of a cooper — at least the occupant, a rough, shaggy, 
dirty Orson of a fellow, was seated upon the floor, making 
a tub, by the light of the fire. The joists overhead were 
piled with seasoned wood, and long bundles of thin, dry fir, 
which is used for torches during the winter darkness. There 
was neither chair nor table in the hut ; but a low bench ran 
around the walls, and a rough bedstead was built against 
one corner. Two buckets of sour milk, with a wooden 
ladle, stood beside the door. This beverage appears to be 
generally used by the Finns for quenching thirst, instead of 
water. Our postilions were sitting silently upon the bench, 
and we followed their example, lit our pipes, and puffed 
away, while the cooper, after the first glance, went on with 
his work ; and the other members of his family, clustered 
together in the dusky corner behind the fire-place, were 



ADVENTURES AMONG THE FINNS. 87 

equally silent. Half an hour passed, and the spirit moved 
no one to open bis mouth. I judged at last that the horses 
had been baited sufficiently, silently showed my watch to 
the postilions, who, with ourselves, got up and went away 
without a word having been said to mar the quaint drollery 
of the incident. 

While at Haparanda, we had been recommended to stop 
at Kingis Bruk, at the junction of the Tornea and Muonio. 
"There," we were told, "you can get everything you want: 
„nere is a fine house, good bed?, and plenty to eat and drink." 
Our blind interpreter at Kardis repeated this advice. 
" Don't go on to Kexisvara ;" (the next station) said he, 
"stop at Kengis, where everything is good." Toward 
Kengis, then, this oasis in the arctic desolation, our souls 
yearned. We drove on until ten o'clock in the brilliant 
moonlight and mild, delicious air — for the temperature had 
actually risen to 25° above zero ! — before a break in the 
hills announced the junction of the two rivers. There was 
a large house on the top of a hill on our left, and. to our 
great joy, the postilions drove directly up to it. u Is this 
Kengis ?" I asked, but their answers I could not understand, 
and they had already unharnessed their horses. 

There was a light in the house, and we caught a glimpse 
of a woman's face at the window, as we drove up. But the 
light was immediately extinguished, and everything became 
silent. I knocked at the door, which was partly open, but 
no one came. I then pushed : a heavy log of wood, which 
Was leaning against it from the inside, fell with a noise 
which reverberated through the house. I waited awhile, 
and then, groping my way along a passage to the door of 



88 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

the room which had been lighted, knocked loudly. After a 
little delay, the door was opened by a young man, who 
ushered me into a warm, comfortable room, and then quietly 
gtared at me, as if to ask what I wanted. " We are travel- 
ers and strangers," said I, " and wish to stop for the nights 
1 This is not an inn," he answered ; " it is the residence of 
the patron of the iron works.'' I may here remark that it 
is the general custom in Sweden, in remote districts, for 
travellers to call without ceremony upon the parson, magis- 
trate, or any other prominent man in a village, and claim 
his hospitality. In spite of this doubtful reception, con 
sidering that our horses were already stabled and the 
station three or four miles further, I remarked again : " But 
perhaps we may be allowed to remain here until morning ?" 
" I will ask," he replied, left the room, and soon returned 
with an affirmative answer. 

We had a large, handsomely furnished room, with a sofa 
and curtained bed, into which we tumbled as soon as the 
servant-girl, in compliance with a hint of mine, had brought 
up some bread, milk, and cheese. We had a cup of coffee 
in the morning, and were preparing to leave when the 
patron appeared. He was a short, stout, intelligent Swede, 
who greeted us courteously, and after a little conversation, 
urged us to stay until after breakfast. We were too hungry 
to need much persuasion, and indeed the table set with 
tjdde, or capercailie (one of the finest game birds in the 
world), potatoes, cranberries, and whipped cream, accom- 
panied with excellent Umea ale, and concluded with coffee, 
surpassed anything we had sat down to for many a day. 
The patron gave me considerable information about the 



ADVENTURES AMONG THE FLN'XS. 89 

sountry, and quieted a little anxiety I wa,s beginning to feel, 
by assuring me that we should find post-horses all the way 
to Muonioniska, still ninety-five miles distant. He in- 
formed me that we had already got beyond the daylight, as 
the sun had not yet risen at Kengis. This, however, was 

n consequence of a hill to the southward, as we afterwards 
found that the sun was again above the horizon. 

We laid in fuel enough to bst us through the day ; and 
then took leave of our host, who invited us to visit him on 
our return. Crossing the Tornea, an hour's drive over the 
hills brought us to the village of Kexisvara, where we were 
obliged to wait some time for our horses. At the inn there 
was a well forty feet deep, with the longest sweep-pole I 
ever saw. The landlady and her two sisters were pleasant 
bodies, and sociably inclined, if we could have talked to 
them. They were all spinning tow, their wheels purring 
like pleased lionesses. The sun's disc came in sight at a 
quarter past eleven, and at noon his lower limb just touched 
the horizon. The sky was of a splendid saffron hue. which 
changed into a burning brassy yellow. 

Our horses promised little for speed when we set out, and 
their harness being ill adapted to our sleds increased the 
difficulty. Instead of hames there were wide wooden yokes, 
the ends of which passed through mortices in the ends of the 
shafts, and were fastened with pins, while, as there was no 
belly-bands, the yokes rose on going down hill, bringing our 

leds upon the horses' heels. The Finnish sleds have 
excessively long shafts, in order to prevent this. Our road 
all day was upon the Muonio River, the main r ranch of the 
Tornea, and the boundary between Sweden and Russia, 



90 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

above the junction. There had been a violent wind during 
the night, and the track was completely filled up. The 
Tornea and Muonio are both very swift rivers, abounding 
in dangerous rapids, but during the winter, rapids and all, 
they are solid as granite from their sources to the Bothnian 
Gulf. We plunged along slowly, hour after hour, more 
than half the time clinging to one side or the other, to pre- 
vent our sled from overturning — and yet it upset at least a 
dozen times during the day. The scenery was without 
change : low, black fir forests on either hand, with the 
decorative snow blown off them ; no villages, or signs of life, 
except the deserted huts of the woodcutters, nor did we 
meet but one sled during the whole day. Here and there, 
on the banks, were sharp, canoe-like boats, twenty or thirty 
feet long, turned bottom upward. The sky was overcast, 
shutting out the glorious coloring of the past days. The 
sun set before one o'clock, and the dull twilight deepened 
apace into night. Nothing could be more cheerless and dis- 
mal : we smoked and talked a little, with much silence 
between, and I began to think that one more such day 
would disgust me with the Arctic Zone. 

It was four o'clock, and our horses were beginning to 
stagger, when we reached a little village called Jokijalka, 
on the Russian side. The postilion stopped at a house, or 
rather a quadrangle of huts, which he made me comprehend 
was an inn, adding that it was 4 polan and 3 belikor (a 
fearfully unintelligible distance!) to the next one. We 
entered, and found promise enough in the thin, sallow, 
Bandy-haired, and most obsequious landlord, and a whole 
herd of rosy children, to decide us to stop. We were 



ADVENTURES AMONG THE FDsNS. 91 

ushered into the milk-room, which was warm and carpeted, 
and had a single narrow bed. I employed my vocabulary 
with good effect, the quick-witted children helping me out 
and in due time we got a supper of fried mutton, bread, 
butter, and hot milk. The children caste in every few 
minutes to stare at our writing, an operation which they 
probably never saw before. They would stand in silent 
curiosity for half an hour at a time, then suddenly rush out, 
and enjoy a relief of shouts and laughter on the outside 
Since leaving Matarengi we had been regarded at all the 
stations with much wonder, not always unmixed with mis- 
trust. Whether this was simply a manifestation of the 
dislike which the Finns have for the Swedes, for whom they 
probably took us, or of other suspicions on their part, we 
could not decide. 

After a time one of the neighbors, who had been sent for 
on account of his knowing a very few words of Swedish, was 
ushered into the room. Through him I ordered horses, and 
ascertained that the next station, Kihlangi, was three and a 
half Swedish miles distant but there was a place on the 
Russian side, one mile off, where we could change horses. 
We had finished writing, and were sitting by the stove, con- 
sulting how we should arrange the bed so as to avoid 
contact with the dirty coverlet, when the man returned and 
told us we must go into another house. We crossed the 
yard to the opposite building, where, to our great surprise, 
^e were ushered into a warm room, with two good beds, 
which had clean though coarse sheets, a table, looking-glas$ 
and a bit of carpet on the floor. The whole male household 
congregated to see U3 take possession and ascertain whether 



92 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

our wants were supplied. 1 slept luxuriously until awa&- 
enkd by the sound of our landlord bringing in wood to light 
the fire. He no sooner saw that my eyes were open than he 
snatched off his cap and threw it upon the fknr, moving 
bout with as much awe and silence as if it were the 
Emperor's bedroom. His daughter brought us excellent 
coffee betimes. We washed our faces with our tumblers of 
drinking water, and got under way by half- past six. 

The temperature had changed again in the night, being 
28° below zero, but the sky was clear and the morning 
moonlight superb. By this time we were so far north that 
the moon did not set at all, but wheeled around the sky, 
sinking to within eight degrees of the horizon at noonday. 
Our road led across the river, past the church of Kolare, 
and through a stretch of the Swedish forests back to the 
river again. To our great surprise, the wind had not blown 
here, the snow still hung heavy on the trees, and the road 
was well beaten. At the Russian post-house we found only 
a woman with the usual troop of children, the eldest of 
whom, a boy of sixteen, was splitting fir to make torches 
I called out " kevorste /" (horses), to which he made a 
deliberate answer, and went on with his work. After some 
consultation with the old woman, a younger boy was sent 
off somewhere, and we sat down to await the result. I called 
for meat, milk, bread, and butter, which procured us in 
course of time a pitcher of cold milk, some bread made of 
gr und barley straw, horribly hard and tough, and a lump 
of sour frozen butter. There was some putrid fish in a 
wooden bowl, on which the family had breakfasted, while an 
immense pot :>f sour milk, bu'ter, broken bread, and straw 



ADVENTURES AMONG THE FINNS. 93 

meal. hanging over the fire, contained their dinner. This 
was testimony enough to the accounts we had heard in 
Stockholm, of the year's famine in Finland ; and we seemed 
Likely to participate in it. 

I chewed the straw bread vigorously for an hour, and 
Bucceeded in swallowing enough to fill my stomach, though 
not enough to satisfy my hunger. The younger children 
occupied themselves in peeling off the soft inner bark of the 
fir, which they ate ravenously. They were handsome, fair- 
skinned youngsters, but not so rosy and beautiful as those 
of the Norrland Swedes. We were obliged to wait more 
than two hours before the horses arrived, thus losing a large 
part of our daylight. The postilions fastened our sleds 
behind their own large sledges, with flat runners, which got 
through the snow more easily than ours. We lay down in 
the sledge, stretched ourselves at full length upon a bed of 
hay, covered our feet with the deerskin, and set off. We 
had gone about a Swedish mile when the postilions stopped 
to feed the horses before a house on the Russian side. 
There was nobody within, but some coals among the ashes 
on the hearth showed that it had been used, apparently, as a 
place of rest and shelter. A tall, powerful Finn, who was 
travelling alone, was there, smoking his pipe. We all sat 
down and did likewise, in the bare, dark hut. There were 
the three Finns, in complete dresses of reindeer skin, and 
ourselves, swaddled from head to foot, with only a small 
segment of scarlet face visible between our frosted furs and 
icy beards. It was a true Arctic picture, as seen by the pale 
dawn which glimmered on the wastes of snow outside. 

We had a poor horse, which soon showed signs of breaking 
5* 



04 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

down, especially when we again entered a belt of country 
where the wind had blown, the trees were clear, and the 
track filled up. At half-past eleven we saw the light of the 
gun on the tops of the hills, and at noon about half his disc 
was visible. The cold was intense ; my hands became so stifl 
and benumbed that I had great difficulty in preventing them 
from freezing, and my companion's feet almost lost all feel- 
ing. It was well for us that we w r ere frequently obliged to 
walk, to aid the horse. The country was a wilderness of 
mournful and dismal scenery — low hills and woods, stripped 
bare of snow, the dark firs hung with black, crape-like moss, 
alternating with morasses. Our Finnish postilions were 
pleasant, cheerful fellows, who insisted on our riding when . 
there was the least prospect of a road. Near a solitary hut 
(the only one on the road) we met a man driving a reindeer. 
After this we lost all signs of our way, except the almost 
obliterated track of his pulk. The snow was deeper thai: 
ever, and our horses were ready to drop at every step. We 
had been five hours on the road ; the driver said Kihlangi 
was " ux verst" distant, and at three, finally, we arrived. 
We appreciated rather better what we had endured when we 
found that the temperature was 44° below zero. 

I at once ordered horses, and a strapping young fellow was 
dent off in a bad humor to get them. We found it impossi- 
ble, however, to procure milk or anything to eat, and as the 
cold was not to be borne else, we were obliged to resort to a 
bottle of cognac and our Haparanda bread. The old woman 
sat by the fire smoking, and gave not the least attention to 
our demands. I paid our postilions in Norwegian orts^ 
which they laid upon a chair and counted, with the assist- 



ADVENTrjRES AMONG THE FINNS 95 

ance of the whole family. After the reckoning was finished 
they asked me what the value of each piece was, which gave 
rise to a second general computation. There was, apparently, 
more than they had expected, for they both made me a formal 
address of thanks, and took my- hand. Seeing that I had 
produced a good effect I repeated my demand for milk. 
The old woman refused, but the men interfered in my 
behalf; she went out and presently returned with a bowl 
full, which she heated for us. By this time our horses had 
arrived, and one of our new postilions prepared himself for 
the journey, by stripping to the loins and putting on a clean 
shirt. He was splendidly built, with clean, firm muscle, a 
white glossy skin, and no superfluity of flesh. He then 
donned a reindeer of pdsk, leggings and boots, and we started 
again. 

It was nearly five o'clock, and superb moonlight. This 
time they mounted our sleds upon their own sledges, so 
that we rode much higher than usual. Our way lay up the 
Muonio River : the track was entirely snowed up, and we 
had to break a new one, guided by the fir-trees stuck in the 
ice. The snow was full three feet deep, and whenever the 
sledge got a little off the old road, the runners cut in so that 
we could scarcely move. The milk and cognac had warmed 
us tolerably, and we did not suffer much from the intense 
cold. My nose, however, had been rubbed raw, and I was 
obliged to tie a handkerchief across my face to protect it. 

While journeying along in this way, the sledge suddenly 
tilted over, and we were flung head foremost into the snow. 
Our drivers righted the sledge, we shook ourselves and goi 
in again but had not gone ten yards before the same thing 



96 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

happened again. This was no joke on such a night, but we 
took it good-humouredly, to the relief of the Finns, who 
seemed to expect a scolding. Very soon we went over a 
third time, and then a fourth, after which they kept near us 
and held on when there was any danger. I became very 
drowsy, and struggled with all my force to keep awake, for 
sleeping was too hazardous. Braisted kept his senses about 
him by singing, for our encouragement, the mariner's 
hymn : — 

" Fear not, but trust in Providence, 

Wherever thou may'st be." 

Thus hour after hour passed away. Fortunately we had 
gocd, strong horses, which walked fast and steadily. The 
scenery was always the same — low, wooded hills on either 
side of the winding, snowy plain of the river. We had 
made up our minds not to reach Parkajoki before midnight, 
but at half-past ten our track left the river, mounted the 
Swedish bank, and very soon brought us to a quadrangle of 
low huts, having the appearance of an inn. I could scarcely 
believe my eyes when we stopped before the door. " Is this 
Parkajoki ?" I asked. " Ja /" answered the postilion. 
Braisted and T sprang out instantly, hugged each other in 
delight, and rushed into the warm inn. The thermometer 
still showed — 44°, and we prided ourselves a little on hav 
in£ travelled for seventeen hours in such a cold with so 
little food to keep up our animal heat. The landlord, a 
young man, with a bristly beard of three weeks' growth, 
showed us into the milk room, where there was a bed oi 
reindeer skins. His wife brought us some fresh hay, a 



ADVENTURES AMONG THE FINNS. 97 

(juilt and a sheepskin coverlet, and we soon forgot both our 
hunger and our frozen blood. 

In the morning coffee was brought to us, and as nothing 
else was to be had, we drank four cups apiece. The land- 
lord asked half a rigs (13 cents) for our entertainment, and 
was overcome with gratitude when I grave him' double the 
Bum. We had the same sledges as the previous night, but 
new postilions and excellent horses. -The temperature had 
risen to 5° below zero, with a cloudy sky and a light snow 
falling. We got off at eight o'clock, found a track partly 
broken, and went on at a merry trot up the river. We 
took sometimes one bank and sometimes the other,- until, 
after passing the rapid of Eyanpaika (which was frozen 
solid, although large masses of transparent ice lay piled like 
rocks on either side), we kept the Swedish bank. We were 
in excellent spirits, in the hope of reaching Muorioniska 
before dark, but the steady trot of our horses brought us 
out of the woods by noon, and we saw before us the long, 
scattering village, a mile or two distant, across the river 
To our left, on a gentle slope, stood a red, two-story build- 
ing, surrounded by out-houses, with a few humbler habita- 
tions in its vicinity. This was Muoniovara, on the Swedish 
side — the end of our Finnish journey. 



:?8 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 



CHAPTER IX. 

LIFE IN LAPLAND. 

As we drove up to the red two-story house, a short man 
with dark whiskers and a commercial air came forward to 
meet us. I accosted him in Swedish, asking him whether 
the house was an inn. He replied in the negative, adding 
that the only inn was in Muonioniska, on the Russian side, 
a mile or more distant. I then asked for the residence of 
Mr. Wolley, the English naturalist, whose name had been 
mentioned to me by Prof. Retzius and the botanist Hart- 
man. He thereupon called to some one across the court, 
and presently appeared a tall, slender man dressed in the 
universal gray suit which travelling Englishmen wear, from 
the Equator to the Poles. He came up with extended hand, 
on hearing his own language ; a few words sufficed for ex- 
planation, and he devoted himself to our interests with the 
cordiality of an old acquaintance. He lived with the Swede, 
Herr Forstrom, who was the merchant of the place ; but 
the wife of the latter had just been confined, and there was 
no room in his house. Mr. Wolley proposed at first to send 
to the inn in Muonioniska, and engage a room, but after- 
wards arranged with a Norsk carpenter who lived on the 



LIFE IN LAPLAND. 99 

lull above, to give us quarters in his house, so that we might 
be near enough to take our meals together. Nothing could 
have suited us better. We took possession at once, and 
then descended the hill to a dinner — I had ventured to hint 
at our famished condition — of capercailie, cranberries, sof 
bread, whipped cream, and a glass of genuine port. 

Warmed and comforted by such luxurious fare, we climbed 
the hill to the carpenter's house, in the dreary Arctic twi- 
light, in the most cheerful and contented frame of mind. 
Was this, indeed, Lapland ? Did we, indeed, stand already 
in the dark heart of the polar Winter ? Yes ; there was 
no doubt of it. The imagination could scarcely conceive a 
more desolate picture than that upon which we gazed — the 
plain of sombre snow, beyond which the black huts of the 
village were faintly discernible, the stunted woods and bleak 
hills, which night and the raw snow clouds had half obscured, 
and yonder fur-clad figure gliding silently along beside his 
reindeer. Yet, even here, where Man seemed to have set- 
tled out of pure spite against Nature, were comfort and 
hospitality and kindness. We entered the carpenter's house, 
lit our candles and pipes, and sat down to enjoy at ease the 
unusual feeling of shelter and of home. The building was 
of squared fir-logs, with black moss stuffed in the crevices, 
making it very warm and substantial. Our room contained 
a loom, two tables, two beds with linen of voluptuous soft- 
ness and cleanness, an iron stove (the first we bad seen in 
Sweden), and the usual washing apparatus, besides a piece 
of carpet on the floor. What more could any man desire ? 
The carpenter, Herr Knoblock, spoke some German ; his 
Bon, Ludwig, Mr, Wolley's servant, also looked after oui 



J 00 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

needs; and the daughter, a fair, blooming girl uf about 
nineteen, brought us coffee before we were out of bed, and 
kept our fire in order. Why, Lapland was a very Sybaris 
in comparison with what I had expected. 

Mr. Wolley proposed to us another luxury, in the shape 
of a vapour-bath, as Herr Forstrom had one of those bath* 
ing~houses which are universal in Finland. It was a little 
wooden building without windows. A Finnish servant-girl 
who had been for some time engaged in getting it in readi- 
ness, opened the door for us. The interior was very hot 
and moist, like an Oriental bathing hall. In the centre was 
a pile of hot stones, covered with birch boughs, the leaves of 
which gave out an agreeable smell, and a large tub of water. 
The floor was strewn with straw, &nd under the roof was a 
platform extending across one end of the building. This 
was covered with soft hay, and reached by means of a ladder, 
for the purpose of getting the full effect of the steam 
Some stools, and a bench for our clothes, completed the ar- 
rangements. There was also in one corner a pitcher of 
water, standing in a little heap of snow to keep it cool. 

The servant-girl came in after us, and Mr. W. quietly 
proceeded to undress, informing us that the girl was bathing- 
master, and would do the usual scrubbing and shampooing. 
This, it seems, is the general practice in Finland, and is 
out another example of the unembarrassed habits of the 
people in this part of the world. The poorer families go 
into their bathing-rooms together — father, mother, and 
children — and take turns in polishing each other's backs. 
It would have been ridiculous to have shown any hesitation 
ander the circumstances — in fact, an indignity to the hones* 



LIFE IN LAPLAND. 101 

pimple-hearted, virtuous girl — and so we deliberately un* 
dressed also. When at last we stood, like our first parents 
in Paradise, "naked and not ashamed/ 1 she handed us 
bunches of birch-twigs with/the leaves on, the use of which 
was suggested by the leaf of sculpture. We mounted to 
the* platform and lay down upon our backs, whereupon she 
increased the temperature by throwing water upon the hot 
stones, until the heat was rather oppressive, and we began 
to sweat profusely. She then took up a bunch of birch- 
twigs which had been dipped in hot water, and switched ug 
smartly from head to foot. When we had become thorough- 
ly parboiled and lax, we descended to the floor, seated our- 
selves upon the stools, and were scrubbed with soap as 
thoroughly as propriety permitted. The girl was an 
admirable bather, the result of long practice in the business. 
She finished by pouring hot water over us, and then drying 
us with warm towels. The Finns frequently go out and 
roll in the snow during the progress of the bath. I ven- 
tured so far as to go out and stand a few seconds in the 
open air. The mercury was at zero, and the effect of the 
cold on my heated skin was delightfully refreshing. 

I dressed in a violent perspiration,. and then ran across to 
Herr Forstrom's house, where tea was already waiting for 
us. Here we found the Idnsman or magistrate of tho 
Russian district opposite, a Herr Braxen, who was decorated 
with the order of Stanislaus for his services in Finland 
luring the recent war. He was a tall, dark-haired man, 
vvith a restless light in his deep-set eyes, and a gentleman in 
his demeanor. He entered into our plans with interest, and 
the evening was spent in consultation concerning them 



102 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

Finally, it was decided that Herr Forstrom should send a 
messenger up the river to Palajoki (forty miles off), tc 
engage Lapps and reindeer to take us across the mountains 
to Kautokeino, in Norway. As the messenger would be 
absent three or four days, we had a comfortable prospect o 
rest before us, and I went to bed with a light heart, to wake 
to the sixth birthday I have passed in strange lands. 

In the morning, I went with Mr. Wolley to call upon a 
Finn, one of whose children was suffering from inflamed 
eyes, or snowthalmia, as it might be called. The family 
were prolific, as usual — children of all sizes, with a regular 
gradation of a year between. The father, a short, shock- 
headed fellow, sat in one corner ; the mother, who, like nine- 
tenths of all the matrons we had seen between Lapland and 
Stockholm, gave promise of additional humanity, greeted us 
with a comical, dipping courtesy — a sudden relaxing and 
stiffening again of the muscles of the knees — which might 
be introduced as a novelty into our fashionable circles. 
The boy's eyes were terribly blood-shot, and the lids swollen, 
but a solution of nitrate of silver, which Mr. W. applied, 
relieved him greatly in the course of a day or two. We 
took occasion to visit the stable, where half a dozen cows 
lay in darkness, in their warm stalls, on one side, with two 
bulls and some sheep on the other. There was a fire in one 
corner, over which hung a great kettle filled with a mixture 
of boiled hay and reindeer moss. Upon this they are fed, 
while the sheep must content themselves with bunches of 
birch, willow and aspen twigs, gathered with the leaves on 
The hay is strong and coarse, but nourishing, and the rein- 
leer moss, a delicate white lichen, contains a glutinous in 



LIFE IN LAPLAND. 103 

gredient, which probably increases the secretion of milk, 
The stable, as well as Forstrom's, which we afterwards 
inspected, was kept in good order. It was floored; with a 
gutter past each row of stalls, to carry off the manure* 
The cows were handsome white animals, in very good con- 
dition. 

Mr. Wolley sent for his reindeer in the course of the 
morning, in order to give us a lesson in driving. After 
lunch, accordingly, we prepared ourselves for the new sensa- 
tion. I put on a poesk of reindeer skin, and my fur-lined 
Russian boots. Ludwig took a pulk also, to assist us in 
case of need. These pulks are shaped very .much like a 
canoe; they are about five feet long, one foot deep, and 
eighteen inches wide, with a sharp bow and a square stern. 
You sit upright against the stern-board, with your legs 
stretched out in the bottom. The deer's harness consists 
only of a collar of reindeer skin around the neck, with a 
rope at the bottom, which passes under the belly, between the 
legs, and is fastened to the bow of the pulk. He is driven 
by a single rein, attached to the base of the left horn, and 
passing over the back to the right hand of the driver, who 
thrusts his thumb into a loop at the end, and takes several 
turns around his w r rist. The rein is held rather slack, in 
order that it may be thrown over to the right side when it 
slips to the left, which it is very apt to do. 

I seated myself, took proper hold of the rein, and awaited 
the signal to start. My deer was a strong, swift animal, 
who had just shed his horns. Ludwig set off first ; my deer 
gave a startling leap, dashed around the corner of the house, 
and made down the hill. I tried to catch the breath whici 



104 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

had been jerked out of me, and to keep my balance, as the 
pulk, swaying from side to side, bounced over the snow. It 
was too late ; a swift presentiment of the catastrophe flashed 
across my mind, but I was powerless to avert it. In another 
second I found myself rolling in the loose snow, with ths 
pulk bottom upward beside me. The deer, who was attached 
to my arm, was standing still, facing me, with an expres- 
sion of stupid surprise (but no sympathy) on his face. I 
got up, shook myself, righted the pulk, and commenced 
again. Off we went, like the wind, down the hill, the snow 
flying in my face and blinding me. My pulk made tremen- 
dous leaps, bounding from side to side, until, the whirlwind 
suddenly subsiding, I found myself off the road, deep over- 
head in the snow, choked and blinded, and with small snow- 
drifts in my pockets, sleeves and bosom. My beard and 
eyebrows became instantly a white, solid mass, and my face 
began to tingle from its snow-bath ; but, on looking back, I 
saw as white a beard suddenly emerge from a drift, followed 
by the stout body of Braisted, who was gathering himself 
up after his third shipwreck. 

We took a fresh start, I narrowly missing another over- 
turn, as we descended the slope below the house, but on 
reaching the level of the Muonio, I found no difficulty in 
keeping my balance, and began to enjoy the exercise. My 
deer struck out, passed the others, and soon I was alone on 
the track. In the grey Arctic twilight, gliding noiselessly 
nd swiftly over the snow, with the low huts of Muonioniska 
dimly seen in the distance before me, I had my first true ex- 
perience of Lapland travelling. It was delightfully novel 
and exhilarating; I thought of "Afraja," and the song of 



LIFE IN LAPLAND 105 

1 Kulnasatz, my reindeer ! ;? and Bryant's "Arctic Lover/ ; 
and whatever else there i$ of Polar poetry, urged my deer 
with shouts, and never once looked behind me until I had 
climbed the opposite shore and reached the village. My 
companions were then nowhere to be seen. I waited some 
time before they arrived, Braisted's deer having become 
fractious and run back with him to the house. His crimson 
face shone out from its white frame of icy hair, as he shouted 
to me, rt There is nothing equal to this, except riding be- 
hind a right whale when he drives to windward, with every 
man trimming the boat, and the spray flying over your 
bows !" 

We now turned northward through the village, flying 
around many sharp corners, but this I found comparatively 
easy work. But for the snow I had taken in, which no-w 
began to melt, I got on finely' in spite of the falling flakes, 
which beat in our faces. Von Buch, in his journey through 
Lapland in 1807, speaks of Muonioniska as " a village with 
an inn where they have silver spoons." We stopped at a 
house which Mr. Wolley stated was the very building, but 
it proved to be a more recent structure on tire site of the 
old inn. The people looked at us with curiosity on. hearing 
we were Americans. They had heard the name of America, 
but did not seem to know exactly where it was. On leav- 
ing the house, we had to descend the steep bank of the 
river. I put out my feet to steady the pulk, and thereby 
ploughed a cataract of fine snow into my face, completely 
blinding me. The pulk gave a flying leap from thesteepes' 
pitch, flung me out, and the deer, eager to make for home, 
dragged me by the arm for about twenty yards before I 



[06 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

could arrest him. This was the worst upset of all, and far 
from pleasant, although the temperature was only zero. I 
reached home again without further mishap, flushed, ex- 
cited, soaked with melted snow, and confident of my ability 
to drive reindeer with a little more practice. 

During the first three days, the weather was raw, dark 
and lowering, with a temperature varying from 9° above to 
13° below zero. On the morning of the 14th, however, th 
sky finally cleared, with a cold south wind, and we saw, for 
the first time, the range of snowy mountains in the east. 
The view from our hill, before so dismally bleak and dark, 
became broad and beautiful, now that there was a little 
light to see it by. Beyond the snowy floor of the lake and 
the river Muonio stretched the scattering huts of Muonion- 
iska, with the church overlooking them, and the round, 
white peak of Ollastyntre rising above his belt of black 
woods to the south. Further to the east extended alternate 
streaks of dark forest and frozen marsh for eighteen miles, 
to the foot of the mountain range of Palastyntre, which 
stood like a line of colossal snow-drifts against the soft 
violet sky, their sides touched by the rosily-golden beams of 
the invisible sun. This and the valley of the Tornea, at 
Avasaxa. are two of the finest views in Lapland. 

I employed part of my time in making some sketches of 
characteristic faces. Mr. Wolley, finding that I wished to 
procure good types of the Finns and Lapps, kindly assisted 
me — his residence of three years in Muoniovara enabling 
him to know who were the most marked and peculiar per- 
sonages. Ludwig was despatched to procure an old fellow 
by the name of Niemi, a Finn, who promised to comply 



LIFE IN LAPLAND. 107 

with my wishes; but his ignorance made him suspicious, 
and it was necessary to send again. "I know what travel- 
lers are," said he, " and what a habit they have of getting 
people's skulls to carry home with them. Even if they are 
arrested for it, they are so rich, they always buy over the 
judges. Who knows but they might try to kill me for the 
sake of my skull ?" After much persuasion, he was finally 
induced to come, and, seeing that Ludwig supposed he was 
Btill afraid, he said, with great energy : u I have made up 
my mind to go, even if a shower of knives should fall from 
heaven !" He was seventy-three years old, though he did 
not appear to be over sixty — his hair being thick and black, 
his frame erect and sturdy, and his colour crimson rather 
than pale, His eyebrows were jet-black and bushy, his. eyes 
large and deep set, his nose strong and prominent, and the 
corners of his long mouth drawn down in a settled curve, 
expressing a melancholy grimness. The high cheek-bones, 
square brow, and muscular jaw belonged to the true Finnish 
type. He held perfectly still while I drew, scarcely moving 
a muscle of his face, and I succeeded in getting a portrait 
which everybody recognised. m 

I gave him a piece of money, with which he was greatly 
delighted ; and, after a cup of coffee, in Herr Knoblock's 
kitchen, he went home quite proud and satisfied. " They do 
not at all look like dangerous persons," said he to the car- 
penter; "perhaps they do not collect skulls. I wish they 
spoke our language, that I might ask them how people live 
in their country. America is a very large, wild place. I 
know all about it, and the discovery of it. I was not there 
myself at the time, but Jenis Lampi, who lives ir Kittila 



1 08 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

was one of the crew of the ship, and he told me how it hap* 
pened. Jenis Lampi said they were going to throw the 
captain overboard, but he persuaded them to give him three 
days, and on the third day they found it. Now I should 
like to know whether these people, who come from that 
country, have laws as we have, and whether they live as 
comfortably/' So saying, Isaaki Anderinpoika Niemi de- 
parted. 

No sooner had he gone than the old Lapp woman, Elsa, 
who had been sent for, drove up in her pulk, behind a fast 
reindeer. She was in complete Lapp costume — a blue cloth 
gown with wide sleeves, trimmed with scarlet, and a curious 
pear-shaped cap of the same material, upon her head. She 
sat upon the floor, on a deer-skin, and employed herself in 
twisting reindeer sinews, which she rolled upon her cheek 
with the palm of her hand, while I was sketching her. It 
was already dark, and I was obliged to work by candle- light, 
but I succeeded in catching the half-insane, witch-like ex- 
pression of her face. When I took the candle to examine 
her features more closely, she cried out, " Look at me, O son 
of man !" She said that I had great powers, and was capa- 
ble of doing everything, since I had come so far, and could 
make an image of her upon paper. She asked whether we 
were married, saying we could hardly travel so much if we 
were ; yet she thought it much better to be married and stay 
at home. I gave her a rigsdaler, which she took with joyful 
surprise, saying " What ! am I to get my coffee and tobacco, 
and be paid too ? Thanks, O son of man, for your great 
goodness \ 7) She chuckled very much over the drawing, say- 
ing that the dress was exactly right. 



LJFE IN LAPLAXO. J 09 

In the afternoon we took another reindeer drive to Mucu- 
ioniska, paying a visit to Pastor Fali, the clergyman whom 
we had met at Forstrom's. This time I succeeded very well 
making the trip without a single overturn, though with 
everal mishaps. Mr. Wolley lost the way, and we drove 
about at random for some time. My deer became restive, 
and whirled me around in the snow, filling my pulk.. It was 
eo dark that we could scarcely see, and, without knowing the 
ground, one could not tell where the ups and down were 
The pastor received us courteously, treated us to coffee and 
pipes, and conversed with us for some time. He had not, as 
he said, a Swedish tongue, and I found it difficult to under- 
stand him. On our way back, Braisted's and Ludwig's deers 
ran together with mine, and, while going at full speed, B.'s 
jumped into my pulk. 1 tried in vain either to stop or drive 
on faster; he trampled me so viofently that I was obliged to 
throw myself out to escape his hoofs. Fortunately the 
animals are not heavy enough to do any serious harm. We 
reached Forstrom's in season for a dinner of fat reindeer 
eteak, cranberries, and a confect of the Arctic raspberry. 

After an absence of three days Salomon, the messenger 
who had been sent up the river to engage reindeer for us, 
returned, having gone sixty miles before he could procure 
them. He engaged seven, which arrived the next evening, 
in the charge of a tall, handsome Finn, who was to be our 
conducter. We had, in the meantime, sunplied ourselves 
with reindeer poesks, such as the Lapps wear, — our own 
furs being impracticable for pulk travelling — reindeer mit- 
tens and boas of squirrel tails strung on reindeer sinews. 
The carpenter's second son, Anton, a lad of fifteen, was 
engaged to accompany us as an interpreter. 6 



• 10 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 



CHAPTER X. 

A REINDEER JOURNEY ACROSS LAPLAND. 

We left Muoniovara at noon on the 15th, fuily prepared 
for a three days' journey across the wilds of Lapland. We 
were about to traverse the barren, elevated table-land, which 
divides the waters of the Bothnian Gulf from those of the 
Northern Ocean, — a dreary, unfriendly region, inhabited 
only by a few wandering Lapps. Even without the preva- 
lence of famine, we should have had difficulty in procuring 
food from them, so we supplied . ourselves with a saddle of 
reindeer, six loaves of rye bread, sugar, and a can of coffee. 
The carpenter lent us a cup and saucer, and Anton, who felt 
all the responsibility of a boy who is employed for the first 
time, stowed everything away nicely in the broad baggage 
pulk. We found it impossible to procure Lapp leggings and 
shoes at Muonivara, but our Russian boots proved an ad- 
mirable substitute. The poesk of reindeer skin is the 
warmest covering for the body which could be devised. It 
is drawn over the head like a shirt, fitting closely around 
the neck and wrists, where it is generally trimmed with 
ermine, and reaching half-way below the knee. A thick 
woollen sash, wrapped first around the neck, the ends then 



a REINDEER JOURNEY ACROSS LAPLAND. XI 

twisted together down to the waist, where they are passec 
tightly around the body and tied in front, not only increases 
the warmth and convenience of the garment, but gives it a 
highly picturesque air. Our sea- otter caps, turned down so 
as to cover the ears and forehead, were fastened upon our 
heads with crimson handkerchiefs, and our boas, of black and 
red squirrel tails, passed thrice around the neck, reached to 
the tips of our noses. Over our dog-skin mittens we drew 
gauntlets of reindeer skin, with which it was difficult to pick 
up or take hold of anything ; but as the deer's rein is twisted 
around one's wrist, their clumsiness does not interfere with t 
the facility of driving. It would seem impossible for even 
Arctic cold to penetrate through such defences— and yet it 
did. 

Herr Forstrom prepared us for the journey by a good 
breakfast of reindeer's marrow, a justly celebrated Lapland 
delicacy, and we set out with a splendidly clear sky and a 
cold of 12° below zero. The Muonio valley was superb, 
towards sunrise, with a pale, creamy, saffron light on the 
snow, the forests on the tops of the hills burning like jagged 
masses of rough opal, and the distant range of Palastyntre 
bathed in pink light, with pure sapphire shadows on its 
northern slopes. These Arctic illuminations are transcend- 
ent ; nothing can equal them, and neither pen nor pencil can 
describe them. We passed through Muonioniska, and kept 
up the Russian side, over an undulating, wooded country 
The road was quite good, but my deer, in spite of his siz 
and apparent strength, was a lazy beast, and gave me much 
trouble. I was obliged to get out of the pulk frequently 
and punch him in the flanks, taking my chance to tumble ir 



112 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

headlong as he sprang forward again. I soon became dis- 
gusted with reindeer travelling, especially when, after we had 
been on the road two hours and it was nearly dark, we 
reached Upper Muonioniska, only eight miles. We there 
ook the river again, and made better progress to Kyrkes- 
suando, the first station, where we stopped an hour to feed 
the deer. Here there was a very good little inn, with a bed 
for travellers. 

We had seven reindeer, two of which ran loose, so that we 
could change occasionally on the road. I insisted on chang- 
ing mine at once, and received in return a smaller animal, 
which made up in spirit what he lacked in strength. Our 
conductor was a tall, handsome Finn, with blue eyes and a 
bright, rosy complexion. His name was Isaac, but he was 
better known by his nickname of Pitka Isaaki y or Long 
Isaac. He was a slow, good-humoured, prudent, careful fel- 
low, and probably served our purpose as well as anybody we 
could have found. Anton, however, who made his first jour- 
ney with us, was invaluable. His father had some misgiv- 
ings on account of his timidity, but he was so ambitious to 
give satisfaction that we found him forward enough. 

I have already described the country through which we 
passed, as it was merely a continuation of the scenery below 
Muonioniska — low, wooded hills, white plains, and every- 
where snow, snow, snow, silence and death. The cold in- 
creased to 33 ° below zero, obliging me to bury my nose in 
my boa and to keep up a vigorous exercise of my toes to pre- 
vent them from freezing, as it is impossible to cover one's 
boots in a pulk. The night was calm, clear, and starry ; but 
after an hour a bank of auroral light gradually arose in the 



A REINDEER JOURNEY ACROSS LAPLAND. 1 13 

aorth, and formed a broad arch, which threw its lustre ovei 
the snow and lighted up our path. Almost stationary at 
first, a restless motion after a time agitated the gleaming 
bow ; it shot out broad streamers of yellow fire, gathered 
them in and launched them forth again, like the hammer of 
Thor, which always returned to hisJiand, after striking the 
blow for which it had been hurled. The most wonderful ap- 
pearance, however, was an immense square curtain, which 
fell from all the central part of the arch. The celestial 
scene-shifters were rather clumsy, for they allowed one end 
to fall lower than the other, so that it over-lapped and dou- 
bled back upon itself in a broad fold. Here it hung for pro- 
bably half an hour, slowly swinging to and fro, as if moved 
by a gentle wind. What new spectacle was in secret prepara- 
tion behind it we did not learn, for it was hauled up so bung- 
lingly that the whole arch broke and fell in, leaving merely 
a pile of luminous ruins under the Polar Star. 

Hungry and nearly frozen, we reached Palajoki at half- 
past nine, and were at once ushered into the guests' room, a 
little hut separated from the main building. Here, barring 
an inch of ice on the windows and numerous windy cracks 
in the floor, we felt a little comfort before an immense fire 
kindled in the open chimney. Our provisions were already 
adamantine ; the meat was transformed into red Finland 
granite, and the bread into mica-slate. Anton and the old 
Finnish .landlady, the mother of many sons, immediately 
commenced the work of thawing and cooking, while I, by the 
tight of fir torches, took the portrait of a dark-haired, black- 
eyed, olive-skinned, big-nosed, thick-lipped youth, who gave 
his name as Eric Johan Sombasi. When our. meal of meat. 



114 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

bread, and coffee had been despatched, the old woman made 
a bed of reindeer skins for us in one corner, covered with a 
coarse sheet, a quilt, and a sheepskin blanket. She then took 
her station near the d jor, where several of the sons were al- 
ready standing, and all appeared to be waiting in silent cu- 
riosity to see us retire. We undressed with genuine Fin- 
nish freedom of manner, deliberately enough for them to 
understand the peculiarities of our apparel, and they never 
took their eyes from us until we were stowed away for the 
night in our warm nest. 

It was snowing and blowing when we arose. Long Isaac 
had gone to the woods after the reindeer, and we employed 
the delay in making a breakfast off the leavings of our sup- 
per. Crossing the Muonio at starting, we entered the 
Russian territory and drove up the bed of the Palajok, a 
tributary stream which comes down from the north. The 
sky became clearer as the dawn increased ; the road was 
tolerably broken, and we sped merrily along the windings of 
the river, under its tall banks fringed with fir trees, which, 
loaded with snow,, shone brilliantly white against the rosy 
sky. The temperature was 8° below zero, which felt un- 
pleasantly warm, by contrast with the previous evening. 

After a time we left the river and entered a rolling up- 
land — alternate thickets of fir and birch, and wastes of fro- 
zen marsh, where our path was almost obliterated.- After 
more than two hours' travel we came upon a large lake, at 
the further end of which, on the southern side of a hill, was 
the little hamlet of Suontajarvi. Here we stopped to bait 
the deer, Braisted's and mine being nearly fagged out. We 
entered one of the huts, where a pleasant woman was taking 



A REINDEER JOURNEY ACROSS LAPLAND. J. 15 

charge of a year-old baby. There was no nre'on the hearth, 
and the wind whistled through the open cracks of the floor 
Long Isaac and the woman saluted each other by placing 
their right arms around each other's waists, wtich is the 
universal manner of greeting in Finland. They only shake 
hands as a token of thanks for a favour. 

We started again at noon ; taking oar way across a wil- 
derness of lakes and snow-covered marshes, dotted with 
stunted birch-thickets. The road had entirely disappeared, 
but Eric of Palajoki, who accompanied us as an extra guide, 
went ahead with a strong reindeer and piloted us. The 
sagacity with which these animals find the track under a 
smooth covering of loose snow, is wonderful. They follow 
it by the feet, of course, but with the utmost ease and ra- 
pidity, often while going at full speed. I was struck by 
the sinuous, mazy character of our course, even where the 
ground was level, and could only account for it by the sup- 
rion that the first track over the light snow had followed 
the smoothest and firmest ridges of the marshes. Our pro- 
gress was now slow and toilsome, and it was not long before 
my deer gave up entirely. Long Isaac, seeing that a change 
must be made, finally decided to give me a wild, powerful 
animal, which he had not yet ventured to intrust to either 
of us. 

The deer was harnessed to my pulk, the rein carefully 
secured around my wrist, and Long Isaac let go his hold 
A wicked toss of the antlers and a prodigious jump followed, 
xnd the animal rushed full tilt upon Braisted, who was next 
uefore me, striking him violently upon the back. The 
more I endeavored to rein him in, the more he plunged aixl 



116 * NORTHERN TRAVEL 

tore, now dashing against the led deer, now hurling meovei 
the baggage pulk, and now leaping off the -track into bot« 
tomless beds of loose snow. Long Isaac at last shouted to me 
to go ahead and follow Eric, who was about half a mile in 
advance. A few furious plunges carried me past our little 
caravan, with my pulk full of snow, and my face likewise. 
Now, lowering his neck and thrusting out his head, with 
open mouth and glaring eyes, the deer set off at the top of 
his speed. 

Away I. went, like a lance shot out from the aurora: 
armoury ; the pulk slid over the -snow with the swiftness of 
a fish through the water ; a torrent of snow-spray poured 
into my lap and showered against my. face, until 1 was com- 
pletely blinded. Eric was overtaken so quickly that he had 
no time to give me the track, and as I was not in a condi- 
tion to see or hear anything, the deer, with the stupidity of 
his race, sprang directly upon him, trampled him down, and 
dragged me and my pulk over him. We came to a. stand 
in the deep snow, while Eric shook himself and started 
again. My deer how turned and made for the caravan, but 
I succeeded in pulling his head around, when he charged a 
second time upon Eric, who threw himself out of his pulk 
to escape. My strength was fast giving way, when we came 
to a ridge of deep, loose, snow, in which the animals sank 
above their bellies, and up w T hich they could hardly drag us, 
My deer was so exhausted when we reached the top, that I 
lad no further difficulty in controlling him. 

Before us stretched a trackless plain, bounded by a low 
mountain ridge. Eric set off at a fast trot, winding hither 
and thither, as 1 is deer followed the invisible path. I kept 



A REINDEER JOURNEY ACROSS THE PLAINS \ \f 

close behind him, white as a Polar bear, but glowing like a 
volcano under my furs. The temperature was 10° below 
?ero, and I could have wished it ten degrees colder. ' My 
dscr, although his first savage strength was spent, was still 
full of spirit, and I began to enjoy this mode of travel 
We soon entered the hills ; which were covered with thickets 
of frozen birch, with here and there a tall Scotch fir. com- 
pletely robed in snow. The sun, which had showed about 
half his disc at noon, was now dipping under the horizon, 
and a pure orange glow lighted up the dazzling masses of the 
crystal woods. All was silver-clear, far and near, shining, 
as if by its own light, with an indescribable radiance. We 
had struck upon a well-beaten track on entering the hills, 
and flew swiftly along through this silent splendour, this 
jewelled solitude, under the crimson and violet mode of the 
sky. Here was true Northern romance: here was poetry 
beyond all the Sagas and Eddas that ever were written. 

We passed three Lapps, with heavy hay-sleds, drawn by a 
reindeer apiece, and after a time issued from the woods upon 
a range of hills entirely bare and white. Before us was 
the miserable hamlet of Lippajirvi, on the western side of 
the barren mountain of Lippivara, which is the highest in 
this part of Lapland, having an altitr.de of 1900 feet 
above the sea. I have rarely seen anything quite so bleak 
and God-forsaken as this village. A few low black huts, 
in a desert of snow — that was all. We drove up to a sort 
Df station-house, where an old, white-headed Finn received 
ine kindly, beat the snow off my poesk with a birch broom, 
and hung my boa near the fire to dry. There was a wild, 
tierce-looking Lapp in the room, who spoke some Norwegian 



118 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

and at once asked who and <rhat I was. His head was cov 
ered with a mop of bright brown hair, his eyes were dark 
blue and gleamed like polished steel, and the flushed crim« 
Bon of his face was set off by the strong bristles of a beard 
of three weeks growth. There was something savage and 
ferocious in his air, as he sat with his clenched fists planted 
upon his knees, and a heavy knife in a wooden scabbard 
hanging from his belt. When our caravan arrived I trans- 
ferred him to my sketch-book. He gave me his name as 
Ole Olsen Thore, and I found he was a character well 
known throughout the country. 

Long Isaac proposed waiting until midnight, for moon 
rise, as it was already dark, and there was no track beyona 
Lippajarvi. This seemed prudent, and we therefore, with 
the old woman's help, set about boiling our meat, thawing 
bread, and making coffee. It was necessary to eat even 
beyond what appetite demanded, on account of the long dis- 
tances between the stations. Drowsiness followed repletion, 
as a matter of course, and they gave us a bed of skins in 
an inner-room. Here, however, some other members of the 
family were gathered around the fire, and kept up an inces- 
sant chattering, while a young married couple, who lay in 
one corner, bestowed their endearments on each other, so that 
we had but little benefit of our rest. At midnight all was ' 
ready, and we set out. Long Isaac had engaged a guide 
and procured fresh deer in place of those which were fa- 
tigued. There was a thick fog, which the moon scarcely 
brightened, but the temperature had risen to zero, and wag 
as mild as a May morning. For the first time in many 
days our beards did not freeze. 



A REESDEER JOURXLY ACROSS LAPLAXD. H9 

We pursued our way in complete silence. Our little car- 
avan, in single file, presented a strange, shadowy, mysterious 
appearance as it followed the winding path, dimly seen 
through the mist, first on this side and then on that ; not a 
Sound being heard, except the crunching of one's own pulk 
oyer the snow. My reindeer and myself seemed to be the 
only living tilings, and we were pursuing the phantoms of 
other travellers and other deer, who had long ago perished 
in the wilderness. It was impossible to see more than a 
hundred yards ; some short, stunted birches, in their spec- 
tral coating of snow. £rew along the low ridges of the 
deep, loose snow, which separated the marshes, but nothing 
else interrupted the monotony of the endless grey ocean 
through which we went floundering, apparently at hap-haz- 
ard. How our guides found the way was beyond my com- 
prehension, for I could discover no distinguishable land- 
marks. After two hours or more we struck upon a cluster 
of huts called Palajarvi, seven miles from Lippajarvi, which 
proved that we were on the right track. 

The fog now beer. me thicker than ever. We were upon 
the water-shed between the Bothnian Gulf and the North- 
ern Ocean, about 1 100 feet above the sea. The birches be- 
came mere shrubs, dotting the low mounds which here and 
there arose out of the ocean of snow. The pulks all ran 
in the same track and made a single furrow, so that our 
gunwales were generally below the sea-level. The snow 
Iras packed so tight, however, that we rarely shipped any 
Two hours passed, and I was at length roused from a half- 
rieep by the evidence of our having lost the way. Long 
Isaac and the g-r'de stopped and consulted every few mi 



£20 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

nutes, striking sometimes in one direction and sometimes 
in another, but without any result. We ran over ridges ol 
heavy, hard tussocks, blown bare of snow, which pitched our 
pulks right and left, just as I have bumped over the coral 
reefs of Loo-Choo in a ship ? s cutter. Then followed deep 
beds of snow-drifts, which tasked the utmost strength of 
our deer, low birch thickets and hard ridges again, over 
which we plunged in the wildest way possible. 

After wandering about for a considerable time, we sudden- 
ly heard the barking of a dog at some distance on our left. 
Following the welcome sound, we reached a scrubby ridge, 
where we were saluted with a whole chorus of dogs, and 
soon saw the dark cone of a Lapp tent. Long Isaac arous- 
ed the inmates, and the shrill cry of a baby proclaimed that 
there was life and love, ^ven here. Presently a clumsy 
form, enveloped in skins, waddled out and entered into con- 
versation with our men. I proposed at once to engage a 
Lapp to guide us as far as Eitajarvi, which they informed 
us was two Norwegian (fourteen English) miles farther. The 
man agreed, but must first go off to the woods for his deer, 
which would detain us two hours. He put on his snow- 
skates and started, and I set about turning the delay to pro- 
fit by making acquaintance with the inmates of the tents. 
We had now reached the middle of the village ; the lean, 
wolfish dogs were yelling on all sides, and the people began 
to bestir themselves. Streams of sparks issued from the 
open tops of the tents, and very soon we stood as if in the 
midst of a group of volcanic cones. 

The Lapps readily gave us permission to enter. We 
lifted the hangi ig door of reindeer hide, crept in, stumbling 



A REINDEER JOURNEY ACROSS LAPLAND. ]^\ 

over a confused mixture of dogs and deer-skins, until we 
found rooo to sit down. Two middle-aged women, dressed 
in poesks, like the men, were kindling a fire between some 
large stones in the centre, but the air inside was still as cold 
as outside. The damp birch sticks gave out a thick smoke, 
which almost stifled us, and for half an hour we could 
scarcely see or breathe. The women did not appear to be 
incommoded in the least, but I noticed that their eyes were 
considerably inflamed. After a time our company was 
increased by the arrival of two stout, ruddy girls of about 
seventeen, and a child of two years old, which already wore 
a complete reindeer costume. They were all very friendly 
and hospitable in their demeanour towards us, for conversa 
tion was scarcely possible. The interior of the tent wa t 
hung with choice bits of deer's hide, from the inside of the 
flanks and shoulders, designed, apparently, for mittens. 
Long Isaac at once commenced bargaining for some of them, 
which he finally purchased. The money was deposited in 
a rather heavy bag of coin, which one of the women drew 
forth from under a pile of skins. Our caps and Russian 
boots excited their curiosity, and they examined them with 
the greatest minuteness. 

These women were neither remarkably small nor remark- 
ably ugly, as the Lapps are generally represented. The 
ground-tone of their complexion was rather tawny, to be 
sure, but there was a glowing red on their cheeks, and their 
eyes were a dark bluish-grey. Their voices were agreeable, 
and the language (a branch of the Finnish) had none of that 
barbaric harshness common to the tongues of nomadic tribes. 
These favorable features, nevertheless, were far from recon 



122 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

ciling me to the idea of a trial of Lapp life. When I dan 
the filth, the poverty, and discomfort in which they lived, 1 
decided that the present experience was all-sufficient. 
Roasting on one side and freezing on the other, with smart- 
ing eyes and asphyxiated lungs, I soon forgot whatever there 
was of the picturesque in my situation, and thought only of 
the return of our Lapp guide. The women at last cleared 
away several dogs, and made room for us to lie down — a 
more tolerable position, in our case ; though how a whole 
family, with innumerable dogs, stow themselves in the com- 
pass of a circle eight feet in diameter, still remains a mys- 
tery. 

The Lapp returned with his reindeer within the allotted 
time, and we took our leave of the encampment. A strong 
south wind had arisen, but did not dissipate the fog, and for 
two hours we had a renewal of our past experiences, in 
thumping over hard ridges and ploughing through seas of 
snow. Our track was singularly devious, sometimes doub- 
ling directly back upon itself without any apparent cause. 
At last, when a faint presentiment of dawn began to glimmer 
through the fog, the Lapp halted and announced that he 
had lost the way. Bidding us remain where we were, he 
struck off into the snow and was soon lost to sight. Scarcely 
a quarter of an hour had elapsed, however, before we heard 
his cries at a considerable distance. Following, as we best 
could, across a plain nearly a mile in diameter we found 
him at last in a narrow dell between two hills. The ground 
now sloped rapidly northward, and I saw that we had crossed 
the water-shed, and that the plain behind us must be the 
lake Jedeckejaure, which, according to Von Buch,. is 1370 
feet above the sea. 



A REINDEER JOlTtNEV ACROSS LAPLAND. 123 

On emerging from the dell we found a gentle slope before 
us, covered with hard ice, down which our pulks flew likt 
the wind. This brought us to another lake, followed by a 
similar slope, and so we descended the icy terraces, until, in 
a little more than an hour, some covered haystacks gave evi 
dence of human habitation, and we drew up at the huts of 
Eitajaivi, in Norway. An old man, who had been watching 
our approach, immediately climbed upon the roof and re- 
moved a board from the chimney, after which he ushered us 
into a bare, cold room, and kindled a roaring fire on the 
hearth. Anton unpacked our provisions, and our hunger 
was so desperate, after fasting for twenty hours, that we 
could scarcely wait for the bread to thaw and the coifee to 
boil. We set out again at noon, down the frozen bed of a 
stream which drains the lakes, but had not proceeded far 
before both deers and pulks began to break through the ice, 
probably on account of springs under it. After being 
almost swamped, we managed to get up the steep snow-bank 
ind took to the plain again, making our own road over 
ridge and through hollow. The caravan was soon stopped, 
that the pulks might be turned bottom upwards and the ice 
scraped off, which, like the barnacles on a ship's hull, 
impeded their progress through the snow. The broad plain 
we were traversing stretched away to the north without a 
break or spot of color to relieve its ghastly whiteness; but 
toward the south-west, where the sunset of an'unrisen sun 
spread its roseate glow through the mist, arose some low 
mounds, covered with drooping birches, which shone against 
the soft, mellow splendor, like sprays of silver embroidered 
on rose-colored satin. 



i24 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

Our course, for about fifteen miles, lay alternately upon 
the stream (where the ice was sufficiently strong) and the 
wild plain. Two or three Lapp tents on the bank exhibited 
the usual amount of children and dogs, but we did not think 
it worth while to extend the circle of our acquaintance in 
that direction. At five o'clo3k, after it had long been dark> 
we reached half a dozen huts called Siepe, two Norwegian 
miles from Kautokeino. Long Isaac wished to stop her* 
for the night, but we resolutely set ourselves against him. 
The principal hut was filthy, crowded with Lapps, and filled 
with a disagreeable smell from the warm, wet poesks hang- 
ing on the rafters. In one corner lay the carcases of two 
deer-calves which had been killed by wolves. A long bench, 
a table, and a rude frame covered with deerskins, and serv- 
ing as a bed, comprised all the furniture. The usual buck- 
ets of sour milk, with wooden ladles, stood by the door. No 
one appeared to have any particular occupation, if we ex- 
cept the host's wife, who was engaged with an infant in 
reindeer breeches. We smoked and deliberated while the 
deers ate their balls of moss, and the result was, that a stout 
yellow-haired Lapp youngster was engaged to pilot us to 
Kautokeino. 

Siepe stands on a steep bank, down which our track led 
to the stream again. As the caravan set off, my deer, which 
had behaved very well through the day, suddenly became 
fractious, sprang off the track, whirled himself around 
on his hind legs, as if on a pivot, and turned the pulk 
completely over, burying ttuj in the snow. Now, I had 
come from Muoniovar% more than a hundred mil?*, without 
being once overt^ned, and was ambitious to make the ^hole 



\ RETNDEER JOURNEY ACROSS LAPLAND. \2$ 

journey with equal success. I therefore picked myself up 
highly disconcerted , and started afresh. The very same 
thing happened a second and a third time, and I don't think 
I shall be considered unreasonable for becoming furiously 
angry. I should certainly have committed cervicide had 
any weapon been at hand. I seized the animal by the horns, 
shook, cuffed, and kicked him, but all to no purpose. Long 
Isaac, who was passing in his pulk, made some remark, 
which Anton, with all the gravity and conscientiousness of 
his new position of interpreter, immediately translated. 

" Long Isaac says," he shouted, u that the deer will go 
well enough, if you knew how to drive him." " Long Isaac 
may go to the devil !" was, I am sorry to say, my profano 
reply, which Anton at once translated to him. 

Seating myself in the pulk again, I gave the deer the rein, 
and for a time kept him to the top of his speed, following 
the Lapp, who drove rapidly down the windings of the 
stream. It was quite dark, but our road was now somewhat 
broken, and for three hours our caravan swiftly and silently 
sped on its way. Then, some scattered lights appeared in 
the distance; our tired deers leaped forward with fresher 
spirit, and soon brought us to the low wooden huts of Kau- 
tokeino. We had travelled upwards of sixty miles since 
leaving Lippajiirvi, breaking our own road through deep 
Bnow for a great part of the way. During this time om 
deers had not been changed. I cannot but respect the pro- 
voking animals after such a feat. . 



|26 NORTHERN TRAVEL, 



CHAPTER XI. 

KAUTOKEINO.— A DAY WITHOUT A SUN. 

While in Dresden, my friend Ziegler had transferred to 
me a letter of introduction from Herr Berger, a merchant oi 
Hammerfest, to his housekeeper in Kautokeino. Such a 
transfer might be considered a great stretch of etiquette in 
those enlightened regions of the world where hospitality re- 
quires certificates of character ; but, in a benighted country 
like Lapland, there was no danger of very fine distinctions 
being drawn, and Ziegler judged that the house which was 
to have been placed at his disposal had he made the journey, 
would as readily open its doors to me. At Muoniovara, f 
learned that Berger himself was now in Kautokeino, so that 
I needed only to present him with his own letter. We ar- 
rived so late, however, that I directed Long Isaac to take us 
to the inn until morning. He seemed reluctant to do this, and 
I could not fathom the reason of Lis hesitation, until I had 
entered the hovel to which we were conducted. A single 
room, filled with smoke from a fire of damp birch sticks, 
was crammed with Lapps of all sizes, and of both sexes. 
There was scarcely room to spread a deerskin on the floor 
while the smell exhaled from their greasy garments and 



KAUT0KEIN0.— A DAY WITHOUT A SUN. 127 

their unwashed bodies was absolutely stifling. I have tra- 
velled too much to be particularly nice in my choice oi 
lodgings, but in this instance I instantly retreated, deter- 
mined to lie on the snow, under my overturned pulk, rather 
than pass the night among such bed-fellows. 

We drove on for a short distance, and drew up before a 
large, substantial log -house, which Long Isaac informed me 
was the residence of the Lcinsman, or magistrate of the dis- 
trict. I knocked at the door, and inquired of the Norwe- 
gian servant girl who opened it, where Herr Berger lived. 
Presently appeared a stout, ruddy gentleman — no less than 
Herr Berber himself — who addressed me in fluent English. 
A few words sufficed to explain everything, and in ten mi- 
nutes our effects were deposited in the guest's room of the 
Lansman's house, and ourselves, stripped of our Polar hides, 
were seated on a sofa, in a warm, carpeted room, with a 
bountiful supper-table before us. Blessed be civilization ! 
was my inward ejaculation. Blessed be that yearning for 
comfort in Man, which has led to the invention of beds, of 
sofas, and easy chairs: which has suggested cleanliness of 
body and of habitation, and which has developed the noble 
art of cooking ! The dreary and perilous wastes over which 
we had passed were forgotten. With hearts warmed in both 
senses, and stomachs which reacted gratefully upon our 
hearts, we sank that night into a paradise of snowy linen 
which sent a consciousness of pleasure even into the obli 
vion of sleep. 

The Lansman, Herr Lie, a tall handsome man of twenty 
three, was a native of Altengaard, and spoke tolerable En* 
£lish. With him and Herr Berger, we found a third per- 



lU8 NORTHERN TRAVEL, 

son, a theological student, stationed at Kautokeinc to lea** 
the Lapp tongue. Pastor Hvoslef, the clergyman, was the 
only other Norwegian resident. The village, separated 
from the Northern Ocean, by the barren, uninhabited ranges 
of the Kiolen Mountains, and from the Finnish settlements 
on the Muonio by the swampy table-lands we had traversed, 
is one of the wildest and most forlorn places in all Lapland, 
Occupying, as it does, the centre of a large district, over 
which the Lapps range with their reindeer herds during 
the summer, it is nevertheless a place of some importance, 
both for trade and for the education, organization, and pro- 
per control of the barely -reclaimed inhabitants. A church 
was first built here by Charles XL of Sweden, in 1660, al- 
though, in the course of subsequent boundary adjustments, 
the district was made over to Norway. Half a century 
afterwards, some families of Finns settled here ; but they 
appear to have gradually mixed with the Lapps, so that 
there is little of the pure blood of either race to be found 
at present. I should here remark that throughout Norwe- 
gian Lapland the Lapps are universally called Finns, and 
the Finns, Qvdns. As the change of names, however, 
might occasion some confusion, I shall adhere to the more 
correct Swedish manner of designating them, which I have 
used hitherto. 

Kautokeino is situated in a shallow valley, or rather ba- 
sin, opening towards the north-east, whither its river flows 
to join the Alten. Although only 835 feet above the sea, 
and consequently below the limits of the birch and the fir 
in this latitude, the country has been stripped entirely bare 
for miles around, and nothing but the scattering groups of 



KAUTOKEINO. — A DAY WITHOUT A SUN. "[29 

low, dark huts, breaks the snowy monotony. It :s with 
great difficulty that vegetables of any kind can be raised. 
Potatoes have once or twice been made to yield eight-fold, 
but they are generally killed by the early autumn frosts be- 
(:ie maturity. On the southern bank of the river, the 
ground remains frozen the whole year round, at a depth of 
only nine feet. The country furnishes nothing except rein- 
deer meat, milk, and cheese. Grain, and other supplies Oj. 
all kinds, must be hauled up from the Alten Fiord, a dis- 
tance of 112 miles. The carriage is usually performed in 
winter, when, of course, everything reaches its destination 
in a frozen state. The potatoes are as hard as quartz peb- 
bles, sugar and salt become stony masses, and even wine as- 
sumes a solid form. In this state they are kept until want- 
ed for use, rapidly thawed, and immediately consumed, 
whereby their flavour is but little impaired. The potatoes, 
cabbage, and preserved berries on the Lansman's table were 
almost as fresh as if they had never been frozen. 

Formerly, the place was almost entirely deserted during 
the summer months, and the resident missionary and Lans- 
man returned to Alten until the Lapps came back to their 
winter huts ; but, for some years past, the stationary popu- 
lation has increased, and the church is kept open the whole 
year. Winter, however, is the season when the Lapp3 are 
found at home, and when their life and habits are most char- 
acteristic and interesting. The population of Kautokeino 
is then, perhaps, about 800; in summer it is scarcely one- 
tenth of this number. Many of the families — especially 
those of mixed Finnish blood — live in wooden huts, with 
the luxury of a fireplace and chimney, and a window or two 



130 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

but the greater part of them burrow in low habitations Oj 
earth ; which resemble large mole hills raised in the crust of 
the soil. Half snowed over and blended with the natural 
inequalities of the earth, one would never imagine, but for 
the smoke here and there issuing from holes, that human 
beings existed below. On both sides of the stream are rows 
of storehouses, wherein the Lapps deposit their supplies and 
household articles during their summer wanderings. These 
structures are raised upon birch posts, each capped with a 
smooth, horizontal board, in order to prevent the rats and 
mice from effecting an entrance. The church is built upon 
a slight eminence to the south, with its low red belfry stand- 
ing apart, as in Sweden, in a small grove of birches, which 
have been spared for a summer ornament to the sanctuary. 
We awoke at eight o'clock to find a clear twilight and a 
cold of 10° below zero. Our stay at Muoniovara had given 
the sun time to increase his altitude somewhat, and I had 
some doubts whether we should succeed in beholding a day 
of the Polar winter. The Lansman, however, encouraged us 
by the assurance that the sun had not yet risen upon his resi- 
dence, though nearly six weeks had elapsed since his disap- 
pearance, but that his return was now looked for every day, 
since he had already begun to shine upon the northern hills. 
By ten o'clock it was light enough to read ; the southern 
sky was a broad sea of golden orange, dotted with a few 
crimson cloud-islands, and we set ourselves to w r atch with 
gome anxiety the gradual approach of the exiled god. But 
for this circumstance, and two other drawbacks, I should 
have gone to church to witness the Lapps at their religious 
exercises. Pastor Hvoslef was ill, and the service consisted 



KAUTOKEINO.-— A DAY WITHOUT A SUN. J3J 

only of the reading of some prayers by the Lapp schoolings* 
ter ; added to which, the church is never warmed, even ic 
the coldest days of winter. One cause of this may, perhaps, 
be the dread of an accidental conflagration ; but the main 
reason is, the inconvenience which would arise from th 
thawing out of so many antiquated reindeer garments, and 
the effluvia given out by the warmed bodies within them. 
Consequently, the temperature inside the church is about 
the same as outside, and the frozen moisture of the worship- 
pers' breath forms a frosty cloud so dense as sometimes to 
hide the clergyman from the view of his congregation. Pas- 
tor Hvoslef informed me that he had frequently preached in 
a temperature of 35° below zero. " At such times, ,; said he, 
" the very words seem to freeze as they issue from my lips, 
and fall upon the heads of my hearers like a shower of snow.'' 
" But/' I ventured to remark, a our souls are controlled to 
such a degree by the condition of our bodies, that I should 
doubt whether any true devotional spirit could exist at such 
a time. Might not even religion itself be frozen ?" " Yes,'' 
he answered, " there is no doubt that all the better feelings 
either disappear, or become very faint, when the mercury 
begins to freeze." The pastor himself was at that time suf- 
fering the penalty of indulging a spirit of reverence which 
for a long time led him to officiate with uncovered head. 

The sky increased in brightness as we watched. The 
orange flushed into rose, and the pale white hills looked 
even more ghastly against the bar of glowing carmine which 
fringed the horizon. A few long purple streaks of cloud 
nung over thf sun's place, and higher up in the vault 
floated some loose masses, tinged with fiery crimson on then 



132 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

lower edges. About half-past eleven, a pencil of bright red 
light shot up — a signal which the sun uplifted to herald 
his coming. As it slowly moved westward along the hills, 
increasing in height and brilliancy until it became a long 
tongue of flame, playing against the streaks of cloud we 
were apprehensive that the near disc would rise to view 
When the Lansman's clock pointed to twelve, its base had 
become so bright as to shine almost like the sun itself; but 
after a few breathless moments the unwelcome glow began 
to fade. We took its bearing with a compass, and after 
making allowance for the variation (which is here very 
slight) were convinced that it was really past meridian, and 
the radiance, which was that of morning a few minutes be- 
fore, belonged to the splendours of evening now. The 
colours of the firmament began to change in reverse order, 
and the dawn, which had almost ripened to sunrise, now 
withered away to night without a sunset. We had at last 
seen a day without a sun. 

The snowy hills to the north, it is true, were tinged with 
a flood of rosy flame, and the very next day would probably 
bring down the tide- mark of sunshine to the tops of the 
houses. One day, however, was enough to satisfy me. You, 
my heroic friend*, may paint with true pencil, and still 
fcruer pen, the dreary solemnity of the long Arctic night : 
but, greatly as I enjoy your incomparable pictures, much as 

* This was written in Lapland ; and at the same time my friend Dr. 
Klisha Kent Eane, of immortal memory, lay upon his death-bed, In 
Havana. I retain the words, which I then supposed would meet hia 
tye, that I may add my own tribute of sorrow for the untimely death of 
one of the truest, bravest, and noblest-hearted men I ever knew, 



KAUTOKEIXO. — A DAY WITHOUT A SUN. 133 

1 ioucur your courage and your endurance, you shall nevei 
trmpt me to share in the experience. The South is a cup 
which one may drink to inebriation ; but one taste from the 
icy goblet of the North is enough to allay curiosity and 
quench all further desire. Yet the contrast between these 
two extremes came home to me vividly but once during this 
journey. A traveller's mind must never stray too far from 
the things about him, and long habit has enabled me to 
throw myself entirely into the conditions and circumstances 
of each separate phase of my wandering life, thereby preserv- 
ing distinct the sensations and experiences of each, and pre- 
venting all later confusion in the memory. But one day, 
at Muonnvara. as I sat before the fire in the afternoon 
darkness, there flashed across my mind a vision of cloudless 
Egypt — palm-trees rustling in the hot wind, yellow moun- 
tain-walls rising beyond the emerald plain of the Nile, the 
white pencils of minarets in the distance, the creamy odour 
of bean-blossoms in the air — a world of glorious vitality, 
where Death seemed an unaccountable accident. Here, Life 
existed only on sufferance, and all Nature frowned with a 
robber's demand to give it up. I flung my pipe across the 
room and very soon, behind a fast reindeer, drove away from 
the disturbing reminiscence. 

I went across the valley to the schoolmaster's house to 
nake a sketch of Kautokemo, but the frost was sc thick on 
the windows that I was obliged to take a chair in the open 
air and work with bare hands. I soon learned the value of 
rapidity in such an employment. We spent the afternoon 
in the Lansman's parlor, occasionally interrupted by the 
viiits of Lapps, who, having heard of our arrival, were very 



134 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

curious to behold the first Americans who ever reached this 
part of the world. They came into the room with the most 
perfect freedom, saluted the Lansman. and then turned tc 
stare at us until they were satisfied, when they retired to 
give place to others who were waiting outside. We wer 
obliged to hold quite a levee during the whole evening. 
They had all heard of America, but knew very little els* 
about it, and many of them questioned us, through Herr 
Berger, concerning our religion and laws. The fact of the 
three Norwegian residents being able to converse with us 
astonished them greatly. The Lapps of Kautokeino have 
hitherto exalted themselves over the Lapps of Karasjok 
and Karessuando, because the Lansman, Berger, and Pastor 
Hvoslef could speak with English and French travellers in 
their own language, while the merchants and pastors of the 
latter places are acquainted only with Norwegian and 
Swedish ; and now their pride received a vast accession. 
" How is it possible?" said they to Herr Berger, "these men 
come from the other side of the world, and you talk with 
them as fast in their own language as if you had nevei 
spoken any other !" The schoolmaster, Lars Kaino, a one- 
armed fellow, with a more than ordinary share of acuteness 
and intelligence, came to request that I would take his por- 
trait, offering to pay me for my trouble. I agreed to do it 
gratuitously, on condition that I should keep it myself, and 
that he should bring his wife to be included in the sketch. 

He assented, with some sacrifice of vanity, and came 
around the next morning, in his holiday suit of blue cloth, 
trimmed with scarlet and yellow binding. His wife, a short 
woman of about twent)-five, with a face as flat and round 



KAUTOKEINO.— A DAY WITHOUT A SUN. J35 

as a platter, but a remarkably fair complexion, accompanied 
him, though with evident reluctance, and sat with eyea 
modestly cast down while I sketched her features. The cir- 
cumstance of mv giving; Lars half a dollar at the close of 
the sitting was immediately spread through Kautokeino, and 
before night all the Lapps of the place were ambitious to 
undergo the same operation. Indeed, the report reached the 
neighboring villages, and a Hammerfest merchant, whc 
came in the following morning from a distance of seven 
miles, obtained a guide at less than the usual price, through 
the anxiety of the latter to arrive in time to have his por- 
trait taken. The shortness of the imperfect daylight, how- 
ever, obliged me to decline further offers, especially as there 
were few Lapps of pure, unmixed Wood among my visitors. 
Kautokeino was the northern limit of my winter journey 
1 proposed visiting Altengaard in the summer, on my way 
to the North Cape, and there is nothing in the barren tract 
between the two places to repay the excursion. I had 
already seen enough of the Lapps to undeceive me in regard 
to previously-formed opinions respecting them, and to take 
away the desire for a more intimate acquaintance. In fea- 
tures, as in language, they resemble the Finns sufficiently to 
indicate an ethnological relationship. 1 could distinguish 
little, if any, trace of the Mongolian blood in them. They 
are fatter, fairer, and altogether handsomer than the nomadic 
offshoots of that race, and resemble the Esquimaux (to 
whom they have been compared) in nothing but their rude, 
filthy manner of life. Von Buch ascribes the difference in 
stature and physical stamina between them and the Finns 
to the use of the vapor bath by the latter and the aversior 



136 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

„o water of the former. They are a race of Northern gip- 
sies, and it is the restless blood of this class rather than any 
want of natural capacity which retards their civilisation. 
Although the whole race has been converted to Christianity, 
and education is universal among them— no Lapp being 
permitted to marry until he can read — they have but in too 
many respects substituted one form of superstition for 
another. The spread of temperance among them, however, 
has produced excellent results, and, in point of morality, they 
are fully up to the prevailing standard in Sweden and Nor- 
way. The practice, formerly imputed to them, of sharing 
their connubial rights with the guests who visited them, is 
wholly extinct, — if it ever existed. Theft is the most usual 
offence, but crimes of a more heinous character are rare. 

Whatever was picturesque in the Lapps has departed 
with their paganism. No wizards now ply their trade of 
selling favorable winds to the Norwegian coasters, or mut- 
ter their incantations to discover the concealed grottoes of 
silver in the Kiolen mountains. It is in vain, therefore, 
for the romantic traveller to seek in them the materials for 
weird stories and wild adventures. They are frightfully 
pious and commonplace. Their conversion has destroyed 
what little of barbaric poetry there might have been in their 
composition, and, instead of chanting to the spirits of the 
winds, and clouds, and mountains, they have become furious 
ranters, who frequently claim to be possessed by the Holy 
Ghost. As human beings, the change, incomplete as it is. 
is nevertheless to their endless profit ; but as objects of in- 
terest to the traveller, it has been to their detriment. It 
would be far more picturesque to describe a sabaoth of Lap* 



KAUTOKEINO. — A DAY WITHOUT A SUN. 137 

land witches than a prayer-meeting of shouting converts, 
yet no friend of his race could help rejoicing to see the lattei 
substituted for the former. In proportion, therefore, as the 
Lapps have become enlightened (like all other savage tribes), 
they have become less interesting. Retaining nearly all 
that is repulsive in their habits of life, they have lost the 
only peculiarities which could persuade one to endure the 
inconveniences of a closer acquaintance. 

I have said that the conversion of the Lapps was in some 
respects the substitution of one form of superstition for 
another. A tragic exemplification of this fact, which pro- 
duced the greatest excitement throughout the North, took 
place in Kautokeino four years ago. Through the preach- 
ing of Lestadius and other fanatical missionaries, a spiritual 
epidemic, manifesting itself in the form of visions, trances, 
and angelic possessions, broke out among the Lapps. It 
infected the whole country, and gave rise to numerous dis- 
turbances and difficulties in Kautokeino. It was no unusual 
thing for one of the congregation to arise during church ser- 
vice, declare that he was inspired by the Holy Ghost, and 
call upon those present to listen to his revelations. The 
former Lansman arrested the most prominent of the offend- 
ers, and punished them with fine and imprisonment. This 
begat feelings of hatred on the part of the fanatics, which 
soon ripened into a conspiracy. The plot was matured 
during the summer months, when the Lapps descended to- 
wards the Norwegian coast with their herds of reindeer. 

1 have the account of what followed from the lips oi 
Pastor Hvoslef, who was then stationed here, and was also 
one of the victims of their resentment. Early one morning 



138 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

in October, when the inhabitants were returning from their 
summer wanderings, he was startled by the appearance of 
the resident merchant's wife, who rushed into his house in 
a frantic state, declaring that her husband was murdered. 
He fancied that the woman was bewildered by some sudden 
fright, and, in order to quiet her, walked over to the mer- 
chant's house. Here ht found the unfortunate man lying 
dead upon the floor, while a band of about thirty Lapps 
headed by the principal fanatics, were forcing the house of 
the Lansman, whom they immediately dispatched with their 
knives and clubs. They then seized the pastor and hij* 
wife, beat them severely with birch-sticks, and threatened 
them with death unless they would acknowledge the divine 
mission of the so-called prophets. 

The greater part of the day passed in uncertainty and 
terror, but towards evening appeared a crowd of friendly 
Lapps from the neighbouring villages, who, after having 
received information, through fugitives, of what had hap- 
pened, armed themselves and marched to the rescue. A fight 
ensued, in which the conspirators were beaten, and the prison- 
ers delivered out of their hands. The friendly Lapps, una- 
ble to take charge of all the criminals, and fearful lest some 
of them might escape during the night, adopted the alterna- 
tive of beating every one of them so thoroughly that they 
were all found the next morning in the same places where 
they had been left the evening before. They were tried at 
Alten, the two ringleaders executed, and a number of the 
others sent to the penitentiary at Christiania. This sum- 
mnvy justice put a stop to all open and violent manifesta* 
tions of religious frenzy, but it still exists to some extent 
•;hoi:a:r: only indulged in secret. 



KAUTOKEIN ). — A >AY WITHOUT a SUN". 139 

We paid a visit to Paster Hvoslef on Monday, and had 
the pleasure of his company to dinner in the evening. H> 
is a Christian gentleman in the best sense of the term and 
though we differed in matters of belief, I was deeply im- 
pressed with his piety and sincerity. Madame Hvoslef and 
two rosy little Arctic blossoms shared his exile — for this is 
nothing less than an exile to a man of cultivation and intel- 
lectual tastes. In his house I saw — the last thing one would 
have expected to find in the heart of Lapland — a piano. 
Madame Hvoslef, who is an accomplished performer, sat 
down to it, and gave us the barcarole from Massaniello. 
While in the midst of a maze of wild Norwegian melodies 
I saw the Pastor whisper something in her ear. At once, to 
our infinite amazement, she boldly struck up " Yankee Doo- 
dle !" Something like an American war-whoop began to 
issue from Braisted'fl mouth, but was smothered in time to 
prevent an alarm. " How on earth did that air get into 
Lapland P I asked. " I heard Ole Bull play it at Christi- 
ania,'' said Madame Hvoslef, u and learned it from memory 
afterwards.'' 

The weather changed greatly after our arrival. From 23° 
below zero on Sunday evening, it rose to 8^° above, on Mon- 
day night, with a furious hurricane of snow from the north 
We sent for our deer from the hills early on Tuesday morn- 
ing, in order to start on our return to Muoniovara* The 
Lapps, however, have an Oriental disregard of time, and aa 
there was no chance of our getting ff before noon, we im 
proved part of the delay in visiting the native schools and 
some of the earthen huts, or, rather, dens, in which most of 
the inhabitants live. There were two schools, each contain- 



140 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

ing about twenty scholars — fat, greasy youngsters, swaddled 
in reindeer skins, with blue eyes, light brown or yellow hair, 
and tawny red cheeks, wherever the original colour could be 
discerned. As the rooms were rather warm, the odour of 
Lapp childhood was not quite as fresh as a cowslip and we 
did not tarry long among them. 

Approaching the side of a pile of dirt covered with snow, 
we pushed one after another, against a small square doorj 
hung at such a slant that it closed of irseli, and entered an 
ante-den used as a store-room. Another similar door ush- 
ered us into the house, a rude, vaulted space, framed with 
poles, sticks and reindeer hides, and covered compactly with 
earth, except a narrow opening in the top to let out the 
smoke from a fire kindled in the centre. Pieces of reindeer 
hide, dried flesh, bags of fat, and other articles, hung from 
the frame and dangled against our heads as we entered. The 
den was not more than five feet high by aoout eight feet in 
diameter. The owner, a jolly, good-humoured Lapp, gave 
me a low wooden stool, while his wife, wi~h a pipe in her 
mouth, squatted down on the hide which served for a bed 
and looked at me with amiable curiosity. 1 contemplated 
them for a while with my eyes full of tears (the smoke being 
very thick,) until finally both eyes and nose could endure no 
more, and I sought th? open air again. 



THE RETURN TO MUONIOVARA. J 4 I 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE RETURN TO MUONIOVARA. 

While at Kautokeino I completed my Lapp outfit by 
purchasing a scarlet cap. stuffed with eider down, a pair of 
bcellinger, or reindeer leggings, and the homager ', or bread, 
boat-shaped shoes, filled with dry soft hay, and tightly 
bound around the ankles, which are worn by everybody in 
Lapland. Attired in these garments, I made a very passa- 
ble Lapp, barring a few superfluous inches of stature, and 
at once realized the prudence of conforming in one's cos- 
tume to the native habits. After the first feeling of awk- 
wardness is over, nothing can be better adapted to the Polar 
Winter than the Lapp dress. I walked about at first with 
the sensation of having eich foot in the middle of a 
large feather bed, but my blood preserved its natural warmth 
i after sitting for hours in an open pulk. The ballinger, 
fastened around the thighs by drawing-strings of reindeer 
sinew, are so covered by the poesk that one becomes, for al] 
practical purposes, a biped reindeer, and may wallow In the 
snow as much as he likes without the possibility of a par- 
ticle getting through his hide. 

The temperature was, nevertheless, singularly mild wher 



142 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

we set out on our return. There had been a violent storm 
of wind and snow the previous night, after which the mer- 
cury rose to 16° above zero. We waited until noon before 
our reindeers could be collected, and then set off, with the 
kind farewell wishes of the four Norwegian inhabitants of 
the place. I confess to a feeling of relief when we turned 
our faces southward, and commenced our return to daylight. 
We had at last seen the Polar night, the day without a sun- 
rise ; we had driven our reindeer under the arches of the 
aurora borealis; we had learned enough of the Lapps to 
convince us that further acquaintance would be of little 
profit ; and it now seemed time to attempt an escape from 
the limbo of Death into which we had ventured. Our 
faces had already begun to look pale and faded- from three 
weeks of alternate darkness and twilight, but the novelty 
of our life preserved us from any feeling of depression and 
prevented any perceptible effect upon our bodily health, such 
as would assuredly have followed a protracted experience of 
the Arctic Winter. Every day now would bring us further 
over the steep northern shoulder of the Earth, and nearer to 
*ihat great heart of life in the south, where her blood pul- 
Ites with eternal warmth. Already there was a perceptible 
ncrease of the sun's altitude, and at noonday a thin uppci 
slice of his disc was visible for about half an hour. 

By Herr Berger's advice, we engaged as guide to Lippa 
jarvi, a Lapp, who had formerly acted as postman, and pro* 
fessed to be able to find his way in the dark. The wind 
had blown so violently that it was probable we should have 
to break our own road for the whole distance. Leaving 
Ka'itokeino, we travelled up' the valley of a frozen stream. 



THE RETURN TO MU0N10VARA. I43 

towards desolate ranges of hills, or rather shelves of the 
table-land, running north-east and south-west. They were 
spotted with patches of stunted birch, hardly rising above 
the snow. Our deer were recruited, and we made very good 
progress while the twilight lasted. At some Lapp fcentg, 
where we stopped to make inquiries about the ice. I was much 
amused by the appearance of a group of children, who 
strikingly resembled bear-cubs standing on their hind legs. 
They were coated with reindeer hide from head to foot, with 
only a little full-moon of tawny red face visible. 

We stopped at Siepe an hour to bait the deer. The sin- 
gle wooden hut was crowded with Lapps, one of whom, 
apparently the owner, spoke a little Norwegian. He knew 
who we were, and asked me many questions about America. 
He was most anxious to know what was our religion, and 
what course the Government took with regard to different 
sects. He seemed a little surprised, and not less pleased, to 
hear that all varieties of belief were tolerated, and that no 
one sect possessed any peculiar privileges over another. (It 
is only very recently that dissenters from the Orthodox 
Church have been allowed to erect houses of worship in 
Norway.) While we were speaking on these matters, an 
old woman, kneeling near us, was muttering prayers to her- 
self, wringing her hands, sobbing, and giving other evidences 
of violent religious excitement. This appeared to be a 
common occurrence, as none of the Lapps took the slightest 
notice of it. I have no doubt that much of that hallucina- 
tion which led to the murders at Kautokeino still exists 
among the people, kept alive by secret indulgence. Those 
missionaries have much to answer for who have planted tin 



|44 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

seeds of spiritual disease among this ignorant and impressi* 
Die race. 

The night was cold and splendidly clear. We were 
obliged to leave the river on account of rotten ice, and took 
to the open plains, where our deers sank to their bellies in 
the loose snow. The leading animals became fractious, and 
we were obliged to stop every few minutes, until their 
paroxysms subsided. I could not perceive that the Lapps 
themselves exercised much more control over them than we, 
who were new to the business. The domesticated reindeer 
still retains his wild instincts, and never fails to protest 
against the necessity of labor. The most docile will fly 
from the track, plunge, face about and refuse to draw, when 
you least expect it. They are possessed by an incorrigible 
stupidity. Their sagacity applies only to their animal 
wants, and they seem almost totally deficient in memory. 
They never become attached to men, and the only sign of 
recognition they show, is sometimes to allow certain persons 
to catch them more easily than others. In point of speed 
they are not equal to the horse, and an hour's run generally 
exhausts them. "\\ hen one considers their size, however, 
their strength and power of endurance seem marvellous. 
Kerr Berger informed me that he had driven a reindeer 
from Alten to Kautokeino, 112 miles, in twenty -six hours, 
and from the latter place to Muoniovara in thirty. I was 
also struck by the remarkable adaptation of the animal to 
its uses. Its hoof resembles that of the camel, being formed 
for snow, as the latter for sand. It is broad, cloven 
nnd flexible, the separate divisions spreading out so as to 
Resent a resisting surface when the foot is set down, and 



THE RETCRX TO MUONIOYARA. 143 

falling together when it is lifted. Thus in snow where a 
horse would founder in the space of a hundred yards, the 
deer easily works his way, mile after mile, drawing the 
sliding, canoe-like pulk, burdened with his master's weight 5 
after him. 

The Lapps generally treat their animals with the greatest 
patience and forbearance, but otherwise do not exhibit any 
particular attachment for them. They are indebted to them 
for food, clothing, habitation and conveyance, and their 
very existence may therefore almost be said to depend on 
that of their herds. It is surprising, however, what a num 
ber of deer are requisite for the support of a family. Von 
Buch says that a Lapp who has a hundred deer is poor, and 
will be finally driven to descend to the coast, and take to 
fishing. The does are never made to labour, but are kept 
in the woods for milking and breeding. Their milk is rich 
and nourishing, but less agreeable to the taste than that of 
the cow. The cheese made from it is strong and not par- 
ticularly palatable. It yields an oil which is I 
specific for frozen flesh. The male deer used for draft are 
always castrated, which operation the old Lapp women per- 
form by slowly chewing the glands between their teeth until 
they are reduced to a pulp, without wounding the hide. 

During this journey I had ample opportunity of fami 
jiari self with reindeer travel. It is picturesque 

enough at the outset, but when the novelty of the thing is 
worn off nothing is left but a continual drain upon one's 
patience. Nothing can exceed the coolness with which your 
•.leer jumps off the track, slackens his tow-rope, turns around 
and looks you in the face, as much as to say : " What arc 



146 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

you going to do about it?" The simplicity and stupidity 
of his countenance seem to you to be admirably feigned* and 
unless you are an old hand you are inevitably provoked 
This is particularly pleasant on the marshy table-lands ol 
Lapland, where, if he takes a notion to bolt with you, your 
pulk bounces over the hard tussocks, sheers sideways down 
the sudden pitches, or swamps itself in beds of loose snow. 
Harness a frisky sturgeon to a " dug-out," in a rough sea, 
and you will have some idea of this method of travelling. 
While I acknowledge the Providential disposition of things 
which has given the reindeer to the Lapp, I cannot avoid 
thanking Heaven that I am not a Lapp, and that 1 shall 
never travel again with reindeer. 

The aberrations of our deer obliged us to take a very 
sinuous course. Sometimes we headed north, and sometimes 
south, and the way seemed so long that I mistrusted the 
quality of our guide ; but at last a light shone ahead. It 
was the hut of Eitajarvi. A lot of pulks lay in front of it, 
and the old Finn stood already with a fir torch, waiting to 
light us in. On arriving, Anton was greeted by his sister 
Caroline, who had come thus far from Muoniovara, on her 
way to visit some relatives at Altengaard. She was in 
company with some Finns, who had left Lippajarvi the day 
previous, but losing their way in the storm, had wandered 
about for twenty-four hours, exposed to its full violence 
Think of an American girl of eighteen sitting in an open 
pulk, with the thermometer at zero, a furious wind and 
blinding snow beating upon her, and neither rest nor food 
for a day ! There are few who would survive twelve hours, 
yet Caroline was as fresh, lively, and cheerful as ever, and 



THE RETURN TO MUONIOVARA- 147 

immediately set about cooking our supper. We found a 
fire in the cold guest's room, the place swept and cleaned, 
and a good bed of deer-skins in one corner. The tempera* 
ture had sunk to 12° below zero, and the wind blew through 
wide cracks in the floor, but between the fire and the recip- 
rocal warmth of our bodies we secured a comfortable sleep— 
a thing of the first consequence in such a climate. 

Our deer started well in the morning, and the Lapp 
guide knew his way perfectly. The wind had blown so 
strongly that the track was cleared rather than filled, and 
we slipped up the long slopes at a rapid rate. I recognised 
the narrow valley where we first struck the northern streams, 
and the snowy plain beyond, where our first Lapp guide lost 
his way. By this time it was beginning to grow lighter, 
showing us the dreary wastes of table-land which we had 
before crossed in the fog North of us was a plain of un- 
broken snow, extending to a level line on the horizon, where 
it met the dark violet sky. Were the colour changed, it 
would have perfectly represented the sandy plateaux of the 
Nubian Desert, in so many particulars does the extreme 
North imitate the extreme South. But the sun, which never 
deserts the desert, had not yet returned to these solitudes. 
Far, far away, on the edge of the sky, a dull red glimmer 
showed where he moved. Not the table-land of Pamir, in 
THbet, the cradle of the Oxus and the Indus, but this lower 
Lapland terrace, is entitled to the designation of the " Roof 
of the World." . We were on the summit, creeping along 
her mountain rafters, and looking southward, off her shel- 
ving eaves, to catch a glimpse of the light playing on her 
majestic front. Here, for once, we seemed to look down on 



148 NORTHERN TBAVEL. 

the horizon, and I thought of Europe and the Tropics a& 
lying below. Our journey northward had been an ascent 
but now the world's steep sloped downward before us into 
sunshine and warmer air. In ascending the Andes or the 
Himalayas, you pass through all climates and belts of vege- 
tation between the Equator and the Pole, and so a journey 
due north, beyond the circle of the sun, simply reverses the 
phenomenon, and impresses one like the ascent of a mountaii 
on the grandest possible scale. 

In two hours from the time we left Eitajarvi we reached 
the Lapp encampment. The herds of deer had been driven 
in from the woods, and were clustered among the birch bushes 
around the tents. We had some difficulty in getting our 
own deer past them, until the Lapps came to our assistance. 
We made no halt, but pushed on, through deeper snows than 
before, over the desolate plain. As far as Palajarvi we ran 
with our gunwales below the snow-level, while the foremost 
pulks were frequently swamped under the white waves that 
broke over them. We passed through a picturesque gorge 
between two hills about 500 feet high, and beyond it came 
upon wide lakes covered deep with snow, under which there 
was a tolerable track, which the leading deer was able to find 
with his feet. Beyond these lakes there was a ridge, which 
we had no sooner crossed than a dismally grand prospect 
opened before us. We overlooked a valley-basin, marked 
with belts of stunted birch, and stretching away for several 
miles to the foot of a bleak snowy mountain, which I at 
once recognised as Lippavara. After rounding its western 
point and turning southward again, we were rejoiced with 
the sight of some fir trees, from which the snow had been 



THE RETURN TO MUOXIOVARA. 149 

ihaken, brightening even with their gloomy green the white 
monotony of the Lapland wilderness. It was like a sudden 
gleam of sunshine. 

We reached Lippajarva at twelve, having made twenty* 
eight miles of hard travel in five hours. Here we stopped 
two hours to cook a meal and change our deer, and then 
pushed on to reach Palajoki the same night. We drove 
through the birch woods, no longer glorious as before, for 
the snow had been shaken off, and there was no sunset light 
to transfigure them. Still on, ploughing through deep seas 
in the gathering darkness, over marshy plains, all with a 
slant southward, draining into the Muonio, until we reach- 
ed the birchen ridge of Suontajarvi, with its beautiful firs 
rising here and there, silent and immovable. Even the 
trees have no voices in the North, let the wind blow as it 
will. There is nothing to be heard but the sharp whistle of 
the dry snow — the same dreary music which accompanies 
the African simoom. The night was very dark, and we 
began to grow exceedingly tired of sitting flat in our pulks. I 
looked sharp for the Palajock Elv, the high fir-fringed 
banks of which 1 remembered, for they denoted our approach 
to the Muonio ; but it was long, long before we descended 
from the marshes upon the winding road of snow-covered 
ice. In vain I shifted my aching legs and worked my be- 
numbed hands, looking out ahead for the embouchure of 
the river. Braisted and I encouraged each other, whenever 
we were near enough to hear, by the reminder that we had 
*nly one more day with reindeer. After a long time spent 
in this way, the high banks flattened, level snows and woods 
succeeded, and we sailed into the port of Palajoki. 



150 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

The old Finnish lady curtsied very deeply as ahe recog* 
nised us, and hastened to cook our coffee and reindeer, and 
to make us a good bed with sheets. On our former visit 
the old lady and her sons had watched us undress and get 
into bed, but on this occasion three buxom daughters, of age? 
ranging from sixteen to twenty-two, appeared about the time 
for retiring, and stationed themselves in a row near the door, 
where they watched us with silent curiosity. As we had 
shown no hesitation in the first case, we determined to be 
equally courageous now, and commenced removing our gar- 
ments with great deliberation, allowing them every oppor- 
tunity of inspecting their fashion and the manner of wear- 
ing them. The work thus proceeded in mutual silence until 
we were nearly ready for repose, when Braisted, by pulling 
off a stocking and displaying a muscular calf, suddenly 
alarmed the youngest, who darted to the door and rushed 
out. The second caught the panic, and followed, and the 
third and oldest was therefore obliged to do likewise, though 
with evident reluctance. I was greatly amused at such an 
unsophisticated display of curiosity. The perfect compo- 
sure of the girls, and the steadiness with which they watch- 
ed us, showed that they were quite unconscious of having 
committed any impropriety. 

The morning was clear and cold. Our deer had strayed 
so far into the woods that we did not get under way before 
the forenoon twilight commenced. We expected to find a 
broken road down the Muonio, but a heavy snow had fallen' 
the day previous, and the track was completely filled. Long 
Isaac found so much difficulty in taking the lead, his deel 
constantly bolting from the path, that Anton finally relieved 



THE RETURN TO MUONIOVARA 151 

him, and by standing upright in the pulic and thumping 
the deer's flanks, succeeded in keeping up the animal's spirits 
and forcing a way. It was slow work, however, and the 
sun, rolling his whole disc above the horizon, announced mid- 
day before we reached Kyrkessuando. As we drove up to 
the little inn, we were boisterously welcomed by Hal, Herr 
Forstronrs brown wolf-dog, who had strayed thus far from 
home. Our deer were beginning to give out, and we were 
very anxious to reach Muoniovara in time for dinner, so we 
only waited long enough to give the animals a feed of moss 
and procure some hot milk for ourselves. 

The snow-storm, which had moved over a narrow belt of 
country, had not extended below this place, and the road was 
consequently well broken. We urged our deer into a fast 
trot, and slid down the icy floor of the Muonio, past hills 
whose snows flashed scarlet and rose-orange in the long 
splendour of sunset. Hunger and the fatigue which our 
journey was producing at last, made us extremely sensitive 
to the cold, though it was not more than 20° below zero. My 
blood became so chilled, that I was apprehensive the extremi- 
ties would freeze, and the most vigorous motion of the mus- 
cles barely sufficed to keep at bay the numbness which at- 
tacked them. At dusk we drove through Upper Muonioniska, 
and our impatience kept the reindeers so well in motion that 
before five o'clock (although long after dark,) we were climb- 
ing the well-known slope to Herr Forstrom's house at Mu 
oniovara. Here we found the merchant, not yet departed tc 
the Lapp fair at Karessuando, and Mr. Wolley, who welcom 
ed us with the cordiality of an old friend. Our snug room 
it the carpenter's was already warmed and set in order, and 



152 NORTHERN TRAVEL, 

after our reindeer drive of 250 miles through the wildest 
parts of Lapland, we felt a home-like sense of happiness and 
comfort in smoking our pipes before the familiar iron stove* 

The trip to Kautokeino embraced about all I saw of Lapp 
life during the winter journey. The romance of the tribe^ 
as I have already said, has totally departed with their con* 
version, while their habits of life, scarcely improved in the 
least, are sufficiently repulsive to prevent any closer experi- 
ence than I have had, unless the gain were greater. Mr. 
Wolley, who had been three years in Lapland, also informed 
me that the superstitious and picturesque traditions of the 
people have almost wholly disappeared, and the coarse mys- 
ticism and rant which they have engrafted upon their im- 
perfect Christianity does not differ materially from the same 
excrescence in more civilized races. They have not even (the 
better for them, it is true) any characteristic and picturesque 
vices — but have become, certainly to their own great advant- 
age, a pious, fanatical, moral, ignorant and commonplace 
people. I have described them exactly as I found them, and 
as they have been described to me by those who knew them 
well. The readers cf " AfrajV may be a little disappoint- 
ed with the picture, as 1 confess I have been (in an artistic 
sense, only) with the reality ; but the Lapps have lost many 
vices with their poetic diablerie, and nobody has a right to 
complain. 

It is a pity that many traits which are really characterise 
tic and interesting in a people cannot be mentioned on ao» 
sount of that morbid prudery so prevalent in our day, which 
insults the unconscious innocence of nature^ Oh, that one 
could imitate the honest unreserve of the old travellers — the 



THE RETURN TO MUONIVARA. A 53 

conscientiousness which insisted on telling not yniy the truth, 
but the whole truth ! This is scarcely possible, now ; but at 
the same time I have not been willing to emasculate my ac* 
counts of the tribes of men to the extent perhaps required by 
our ultra-conventionalism, and must insist, now and then, on 
being allowed a little Flemish fidelity to nature. In the de- 
scription of races, as in the biography of individuals, the 
most important half of life is generally omitted. 



[54 NORTHERN TRAVEL 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ABOUT THE FINNS. 

We remained but another day in Muoniovara, after oni 
return from Kautokeino, and this was devoted to prepara- 
tions for the return journey to Haparanda. My first inten- 
tion had been to make an excursion across the country to 
the iron mountains of Gellivara, thence to Quickjock, at the 
foot of the Northern Alp, Sulitelma, " Queen of Snows," 
and so southward through the heart of Swedish Lappmark : 
but I found that such a journey would be attended with 
much difficulty and delay. In the first place, there were no 
broken roads at this season, except on the routes of inland 
trade; much of the intermediate country is a wilderness 
where one must camp many nights in the snow ; food was 
very scarce, the Lapps having hardly enough for their own 
necessities, and the delays at every place where guides and 
reindeer must be changed, would have prolonged the journey 
far beyond the time which I had allotted to the North. I 
began to doubt, also, whether one would be sufficiently re- 
paid for the great fatigue and danger which such a trip 
would have involved. There is no sensation of which one 
wearies sooner than disgust : and, much as I enjoy a degree of 



AB0U7 THE FINNS. 155 

oarbarism in milder climates, I suspected that a long com- 
panionship with Lapps in a polar winter would be a little 
too much for me. So I turned my face toward Stockholm, 
heartily glad that I had made the journey, yet not dissatisfied 
that I was looking forward to its termination. 

Before setting out on our return, I shall devote a few 
pages to the Finns. For the principal facts concerning 
them, 1 am mostly indebted to Mr. Wolley, whose acquaint- 
ance with the language, and residence of three years in 
Lapland, have made hiin perfectly familiar with the race. 
As I have already remarked, they are a more picturesque 
people than the Swedes, with stronger lights and shades of 
character, more ardent temperaments, and a more deeply- 
rooted national feeling. They seem to be rather clannish and 
exclusive, in fact, disliking both Swedes and Russians, and 
rarely intermarrying with them. The sharply-defined 
boundaries of language and race, at the head of the Bothnian 
Gulf, are a striking evidence of this. Like their distant 
relatives, the Hungarian Magyars, they retain many distinct 
traces of their remote Asiatic origin. It is partly owing to 
this fact, and partly to that curious approach of extremes 
which we observe in nature no less than in humanity, that 
all suggestive traits of resemblance in these regions point to 
the Orient rather than to Europe. 

I have already described the physical characteristics of the 
Finns, and have nothing to add, except that I found the 
same type everywhere, even among the mixed-blooded Quans 
of Kautokeino — high cheek-bones, square, strong jaws, full 
yet firm lips, low, broad foreheads, dark eyes and hair, and 
a deeper, warmer red on the cheeks than on those of the rosv 



[56 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

Swedes. The average height is, perhaps, not quite equal U 
that of the latter race, but in physical vigor I can see no 
inferiority, and there are among them many men of splendid 
stature, strength, and proportion. Von Buch ascribes the 
marked difference of stature between the Finns and the 
Lapps, both living under precisely the same influences of 
climate, to the more cleanly habits of the former and their 
constant use of the vapor-bath ; but I have always found that 
blood and descent, even where the variation from the primi- 
tive stock is but slight, are more potent than climate or 
custom. The Finns have been so long christianised and 
civilised (according to the European idea of civilisation), 
that whatever peculiar characteristic they retain must be 
looked for mainly in those habits which illustrate their 
mental and moral natures. In their domestic life, they 
correspond in most particulars to the Swedes of the same 
class. 

They are passionate, and therefore prone to excesses — im- 
aginative, and therefore, owing to their scanty education, 
superstitious. Thus the religious element, especially the 
fantastic aberrations thereof engendered by Lestadius and 
other missionaries, while it has tended greatly to repress the 
vice, has in the same proportion increased the weakness. 
Drunkeness, formerly so prevalent as to be the curse of Lap- 
land, is now exceedingly rare, and so are the crimes for which 
it is responsible. The most flagrant case which has occurred 
in the neighborhood of Muoniovara for some years past, was 
that of a woman who attempted to poison her father-in-law 
by mixing the scrapings of lucifer matches with his 
coffee, in order to get rid of the burden .of supporting him, 



ABOUT THE FINNS. 157 

Although the evidence was very convincing, themattei was 
hushed up, in order to avoid a scandal upon the Church, 
the woman being a steadfast member. In regard to drunk- 
enness, I have heard it stated that, while it was formerly no 
unusual thing for a Finn to be frozen to death in thi3 con- 
dition, the same catastrophe never befell a Lapp, owing to 
his mechanical habit of keeping his arms and feet in 
motion — a habit which he preserves even while utterly stu 
pefied and unconscious. 

A singular spiritual epidemic ran through Polar Finland 
three or four years ago, cotemporary with the religious ex- 
citement in Norwegian Lapland, and partly occasioned by 
the same reckless men. It consisted of sobbings, strong 
nervous convulsions, and occasional attacks of that state of 
semi-consciousness called trance, the subjects of which were 
looked upon as having been possessed by the Spirit, and 
transported to the other world, where visions like those of 
John on Patmos, were revealed to them. The missionaries, 
instead of repressing this unhealthy delusion, rather encour- 
aged it, and even went so far as to publish as supernatural 
revelations, the senseless ravings of these poor deluded peo- 
ple. The epidemic spread until there was scarcely a family 
some member of which was not affected by it, and even yet 
it has not wholly subsided. The fit would come upon the 
infected persons at any time, no matter where they were, or 
how employed. It usually commenced with a convulsive 
catching of the breath, which increased in violence, accom- 
panied by sobbing, and sometimes by cries or groans, until 
the victim was either exhausted or fell into a trance, which 
lasted some hours The persons who were affected were 



158 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

always treated with the greatest respect during the attack 
no one ventured to smile, no matter how absurd a form the 
visitation might take. The principle Df abstinence from 
strong drinks was promulgated about the same time, and 
much of the temperance of the Finns and Lapps is un 
dou^tedly owing the impression made upon their natures by 
these phenomena. 

The same epidemic has often prevailed in the United 
States, England and Germany. The barking and dancing 
mania which visited Kentucky thirty or forty years ago, 
and the performances of the " Holy Rollers," were even 
more ludicrous and unnatural. Such appearances are a 
puzzle alike to the physiologist and the philosopher ; their 
frequency shows that they are based on some weak spot in 
human nature ; and in proportion as we pity the victims we 
have a right to condemn those who sow the seeds of the 3 pes- 
tilence. iTrue religion is never spasmodic ; it is calm as the 
existence of God. I know of nothing more shocking than 
such attempts to substitute rockets and blue lights for Hea- 
ven's eternal sunshine^) 

So far as regards their moral character, the Finns have 
as little cause for reproach as any other people We found 
them as universally honest and honourable in their dealings 
as the Northern Swedes, who are not surpassed in the world 
in this respect. Yet their countenances express more cun- 
ning and reserve, and the virtue may be partly a negative 
one, resulting from that indolence which characterises the 
frigid and the torrid zone. Thus, also, notwithstanding 
physical signs which denote more ardent animal passions 
than their neighbors, they are equally chaste, and have as 



ABOUT THE FINNS. ^59 

high a standard of sexual purity. Illegitimate births are 
quite rare, and are looked upon as a lasting shame and dis- 
grace to both parties. The practice of " bundling" which, 
until recently, was very common among Finnish lovers, very 
seldom led to such results, and their marriage speedily re- 
moved the dishonour. Their manners, socially, in this res- 
pect, are curiously contradictory. Thus, while both sexes 
freely mingle in the bath, in a state of nature, while the 
women unhesitatingly scrub, rub and dry their husbands, 
brothers or male friends, while the salutation for both sexes 
is an embrace with the right arm, a kiss is considered gross- 
ly immodest and improper. A Finnish woman expressed 
the greatest astonishment and horror, at hearing from Mr. 
Wolley that it was a very common thing in England for a 
husband and wife to kiss each other. " If my husband were 
to attempt such a thing," said she, "I would beat him about 
the ears so that he would feel it for a week." Yet in con- 
versation they are very plain and unreserved, though by no 
means gross. They acknowledge that such things as gen- 
eration, gestation and parturition exist, and it may be that 
this very absence of mystery tends to keep chaste so excita- 
ble and imaginative a race. 

Notwithstanding their superstition, their love of poetry, 
and the wild, rich, musical character of their language, there 
is a singular absence of legendary lore in this part of Fin- 
land Perhaps this is owing to the fact that their ancestors 
have emigrated hither, principally within the last two cen- 
turies, from the early home of the race— Tavastland, the 
shores of the Pajana Lake, and the Gulf of Finland. It 
is a difficult matter to preserve family traditions among 



J 60 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

fcheni, or even any extended genealogical record > from the 
circumstance that a Finn takes his name, not only from his 
father's surname, but from his residence. Thus, Isaki takea 
the name of a Anderinpoika" from his father Anderi, and 
idds " Niemi," the local name of his habitation. His son 
Nils will be called Nils Isakipoika, with the addition of the 
name of his residence, wherever that may be ; and his family 
name will be changed as often as his house. There may be 
a dozen different names in the course of one generation, and 
the list soon becomes too complicated and confused for an 
uneducated memory. It is no wonder, therefore, that the 
Finn knows very little except about what happened during 
his own life, or, at best, his father's. I never heard the 
Kalewala spoken of, and doubt very much whether it is 
known to the natives of this region. The only songs we 
heard, north of Haparanda, were hymns — devout, but dis- 
mal. There must be ballads and household songs yet alive, 
but the recent spiritual fever has silenced them for the 
time. 

I was at first a little surprised to find the natives of the 
North so slow, indolent and improvident. We have an idea 
that a cold climate is bracing and stimulating — ergo, the 
further north you go, the more active and energetic you 
will find the people. But the touch of ice is like that of 
fire. The tropics relax, the pole benumbs, and the practical 
result is the same in both cases. In the long, long winter ; 
when there are.but four hours of twilight to twenty of dark- 
ness — when the cows are housed, the wood cut, the hay 
gathered, the barley bran and fir bark stowed away for bread ; 
and the summer's catch of fish salted — what can a man do 



ABOUT THE FINNS. 161 

when his load of wood or hay is hauled home, but eat, gos- 
sip and sleep ? To bed at nine, and out of it at eight in 
the morning, smoking and dozing between the slow perform- 
ance of his few daily duties, he becomes at last as listless 
and dull as a hibernating bear. In the summer he has per- 
petual daylight, and need not hurry. Besides, why should 
he give himself special trouble to produce an unusually large 
crop of flax or barley, when a single night may make his 
labours utterly profitless ? Even in midsummer the blight- 
ing frost may fall : nature seems to take a cruel pleasure in 
thwarting him : he is fortunate only through chance ; and 
thus a sort of Arab fatalism and acquiescence in whatever 
happens, takes possession of him. His improvidence is also 
to be ascribed to the same cause. Such fearful famine and 
suffering as existed in Finland and Lapland during the win- 
ter of 1856-7 might no doubt have been partially prevent- 
ed, but no human power could have wholly forestalled it. 

The polar zone was never designed for the abode of man. 
In the pre- Adamite times, when England was covered with 
palm-forests, and elephants ranged through Siberia, things 
may have been widely different, and the human race then 
(if there was any) may have planted vineyards on these 
frozen hills and lived in bamboo huts. But since the geolo- 
gical emeutes and revolutions, and the establishment of the 
terrestrial regime, I cannot for the life of me see whatever 
induced beings endowed with human reason, to transplant 
themselves hither and here take root, while such vast spaces 
lie waste and useless in more genial climes. A man may 
be pardoned for remaining where the providences of birth 
md education hive thrown 1dm, but I ennm' excuse the 



162 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

first colonists for inflicting sucli a home upon' centuries of 
descendants. Compare even their physical life — the pure 
animal satisfaction in existence, for that is not a trifling 
matter after all — with that of the Nubians, or the Malays, 
or the Polynesians ! It is the difference between a poor 
hare, hunted and worried year after year by hounds and 
visions of hounds and the familiar, confiding wren, happiest 
of creatures, because secure of protection everywhere. Oh 
that the circle of the ecliptic would coincide with that of 
the equator ! That the sun would shine from pole to pole 
for evermore, and all lands be habitable and hospitable, and 
the Saharan sands (according to Fourier) be converted into 
bowers of the Hesperides, and the bitter salt of the ocean 
brine (vide the same author) become delicious champagne 
punch, wherein it would be pleasure to drown ! But I am 
afraid that mankind is not yef fit for such a millennium. 

Meanwhile it is truly comforting to find that even here, 
where men live under such discouraging circumstances that 
one would charitably forgive them the possession of many 
vices, they are, according to their light, fully as true, and 
honest, and pure, as the inhabitants of the most favoured 
countries in the world. Love ^or each other, trust in each 
other, faith in God, are all vital among them ; and their 
shortcomings are so few and so easily accounted for, that 
one must respect them and feel that his faith in man is not 
lessened in knowing them. [You who spend your lives at 
home can never know how much good there is in the "world./ 
In rude unrefined races, evil naturally rises to the surfac^ 
and one can discern the character of the stream beneath its 
scum, vjt is only in the highest civilization where the out* 



ABOUT THE FINX8. tfj3 

Bide is goodly to the eye, too often concealing an interior 
foul to the core. 

But I have no time to moralise on these matters. My 
duty is that of a chronicler ; and if I perform that consci- 
entiously, the lessons which my observations suggest will need 
no pointing out. I cannot close this chapter, however, with- 
out confessing my obligations to Mr. Wolley, whose thorough 
knowledge of the Lapps and Finns enabled me to test the 
truth of my own impressions, and to mature opinions which 
I should otherwise, from my own short experience, have hesi- 
tated in stating. Mr. Wolley, with that pluck and persist- 
ence of English character which Emerson so much admires, 
had made himself master of all that Lapland can furnish to 
the traveller, but intended remaining another year for scien- 
tific purposes. If he gives to the world — as I hope and trust 
he will — the result of this long and patient inquiry and in- 
vestigation, we shall have at last a standard authority for 
this little-known corner of Europe. We were also indebted 
to Mr. Wolley for much personal kindness, which I take 
pleasure in acknowledging in the only way he cannot pre* 



!()1 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

EXPERIENCES OF ARCTIC WEATHER. 

We bade a final adieu to Muoniovara on the afternoon of 
the 24th of January, leaving Mr. Wolley to wait for June 
and the birds in that dismal seclusion. Instead of resuming 
skjuts, we engaged horses as far as Kengis from Herr For- 
strom and a neighbouring Finn, with a couple of shock-headed 
natives as postillions. Our sleds were mounted upon two 
rough Finnish sledges, the only advantage of which was to 
make harder work for the horses — but the people would have 
it so. The sun was down, but a long, long twilight succeeded* 
with some faint show of a zodiacal light. There was a 
tolerable track on the river, but our Finns walked their horses 
the whole way, and we were nearly seven hours in making 
Parkajoki. The air was very sharp ; my nose, feet and hands 
kept me busily employed, and I began to fear that I was be- 
coming unusually sensitive to cold, for the thermometer indi- 
cated but 15° below zero when we started. At Parkajoki, 
however, my doubts were removed and my sensations ex- 
plained, on finding that the temperature had fallen to 44° 
below. 

We slept warmly and well on our old bed of reindeer skin* 



EXPERIENCES OF ARCTIC WEATHER. 165 

in one corner of the milk-room. When Braisted, who rose 
first, opened the door, a thick white mist burst in and rolled 
heavily along the floor. I went out, attired only in my shirt 
and drawers, to have a look at the weather. I found the air 
very still and keen, though not painfully cold — but I was 
still full of the warmth of sleep. The mercury, however, 
had sunk into the very bulb of the thermometer, and was 
frozen so solid that I held it in the full glare of the fire for 
about a minute and a half before it thawed sufficiently to 
mount. The temperature was probably 50° below zero, if 
not more — greater than any we had yet experienced. But 
it was six o'clock, and we must travel. Fortifying ourselves 
with coffee and a little meat, and relying for defence in case 
of extremity on a bottle of powerful rum with which we had 
supplied ourselves, we muffled up with more than usual care, 
and started for Kihlangi. 

We devoted ourselves entirely to keeping warm, and 
during the ride of six hours suffered very little except from 
the gradual diminution of our bodily temperature. It was 
a dreary journey, following the course of the Muonio be- 
tween black, snow-laden forests. The sun rose to a height 
of seven or eight degrees at meridian ; when we came over 
the same road, on our way north, he only showed half his 
disc. At Kihlangi the people recognised us, and were as 
well disposed as their stupidity would allow. The oW 
woman cooked part of our reindeer joint, which, with half a 
dozen cups of strong coffee, brought back a comfortable 
warmth to our extremities. There were still twenty-four 
miles to be traversed ; the horses were already exhausted, 
and the temperature only rose to — 42 c at mid- day, afte* 



166 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

which it fell again. We had a terrible journey. Step by 
Btep the horses slowly pulled us through the snow, every 
hour seeming lengthened to a day, as we worked our be- 
numbed fingers and toes until the muscles were almost 
powerless, and yet it was dangerous to cease. Gradually 
the blood grew colder in the main channels ; insidious chills 
succeeded, followed by a drowsy torpor, like that which is 
produced by a heavy dose of opium, until we were fain to 
have recourse to the rum, a horrid, vitriolic beverage, which 
burned our throats and stomachs like melted lead, yet gave 
us a temporary relief. 

We almost despaired of reaching Jokijalka, on finding, 
about ten o'clock at night, that our postillions had taken us 
to the village of Kolare, and stopped before a large log 
house, where they seemed to think we would spend the 
night. Everybody had gone to bed, we knew not where we 
were and had set our hearts upon the comfortable guest's 
room at Jokijalki. It was impossible to make the fellows 
understand me, but they saw that we were angry, and after 
a short consultation passed on. We again entered the 
snowy woods, which were dimly lighted up by an aurora be- 
hind us — a strange, mysterious, ghastly illumination, like 
the phosphorescent glow of a putrefying world. We were 
desperately cold, our very blood freezing in our veins, and 
our limbs numb and torpid. To keep entirely awake was 
impossible. We talked incessantly, making random answers, 
as continual fleeting dreams crossed the current of our con- 
sciousness, A heavy thump on the back was pardoned by 
him who received it, and a punch between the eyes would 
have been thankfully accepted had it been necessary. 



EXPERIENCES OF ARCTIC WEATHEM. lg? 

At last at last, Kolare church on the river bank came in 
sight ; we crossed to the Russian side, and drove into the 
yard of the inn. It was nearly midnight, 47° below zero 
and we had been for seventeen hours exposed to such a tern* 
perature. Everybody had long been asleep. Locks and 
bolts are unknown, however, so we rushed into the family 
room, lit fir splinters, and inspected the faces of the sleeping 
group until we found the landlord, who arose and kindled 
a fresh fire in the milk-room. They made us coffee and a 
small bed, saying that the guest's room was too cold, which 
indeed it was, being little less than the outside temperature, 
On opening the door in the morning, the cold air rushed in 
as thick and white as steam. We had a little meat cooked, 
but could not eat enough, at such an early hour, to supply 
much fuel. As for taking anything with us for refreshment 
on the road, it was out of the question. One of our Finns 
turned back to Muoniovara with the laziest horse, and we 
got another from our Russian landlord. But it was a long, 
long journey to the next station (twenty miles), and the 
continuance of the extreme cold began to tell upon us. 
This part of the road was very heavy, as on the journey 
up — seemingly a belt of exposed country where the snow 
drifts more than elsewhere. 

At Kexisvara vve found two of the three pleasant women, 
who cooked our last fragment of reindeer meat, and sent ofl 
for horses to Kardis. We here parted with our other Finn, 
very glad to get rid of his horse, and take a fresh start. 
We had no difficulty now in making our way with the 
people, as they all recognised us and remembered our over- 
payments ; besides which, I had enlarged my Finnish voca 



168 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

bulary at Muoniovara. Our horses wei j better, i ur sledges 
lighter and we were not long in reaching the iron-works at 
Kengis, which we passed at dusk. I should willingly have 
called upon the hospitable bruk-patron, but we were in toe 
great a hurry to get out of the frigid zone. We were 
warmed by our meal, and sang lustily as we slid down the 
Tornea, finding its dreary, sparsely-settled banks cheerful and 
smiling by contrast with the frightful solitudes we had left. 
After some hours the postillion stopped before a house on the 
Swedish bank to hay his horses. We went up and found a 
single inhabitant, a man who was splitting fir for torches, 
but the conversation was limited to alternate puffs from our 
pipes. There was a fine aurora behind us — a low arch of 
white fire, with streamers radiating outward, shifting and 
dancing along its curve. 

It was nearly ten o'clock before we reached Kardis, half 
unconscious from the cold. Our horse ran into the wrong 
place, and we lost sight of the baggage-sled, our only guide 
in the darkness. We could no longer trust the animal's in- 
stinct, but had to depend on our own, which is perhaps truer 
at least, I have often found in myself traces of that blind, 
unreasoning faculty which guides the bee and the bird, and 
have never been deceived in trusting to it. We found the 
inn, and carried a cloud of frozen vapor into the kitchen 
with us. as we opened the door. The graceful wreaths of 
ice-smoke rolled before our feet, as before those of ascending 
saints in the old pictures, but ourselves, hair from head to 
foot, except two pairs of eyes, which looked out through icy 
loop-holes, resembled the reverse of saints. I told the land* 
lord in Finnish that we wanted to sleep — "mia tarvi nukti 



EXPERIENCES OF ARCTIC WEATHER. J 69 

a." He pointed to a bed in the corner, out of which rose a 
sick girl, of about seventeen, very pale, and evidently suffer- 
ing. They placed some benches near the fire, removed the 
bedding, and disposed her as comfortably as the place per- 
mitted. We got some hot milk and hard bread, threw some 
reindeer skins on the vacant truck, and lay down, but not 1o 
sleep much. The room was so close and warm, and tht 
dozen persons in it so alternately snoring and restless, that 
our rest was con tinually disturbed. We, therefore, rose early 
irid aroused the lazy natives. 

The cold was still at 47° below zero. The roads were so 
much better, however, that we descended again to our own 
runners, and our lively horses trotted rapidly down the 
Tornea. The signs of settlement and comparative civilisa* 
tion which now increased with every mile were really cheer- 
ing. Part of our way lay through the Swedish woods and 
over the intervening morasses, where the firs were hung with 
weepers of black-green moss, and stood solid and silent in 
their mantles of snow, lighted with a magnificent golden 
flush at sunrise. The morning was icy-clear and dazzling. 
There was not the least warmth in the sun's rays, but it was 
pleasant to see him with a white face once more. We could 
still stare at him without winking, but the reflection from the 
jewelled snow pained our eyes. The ccld was so keen that 
we were obliged to keep our faces buried between our caps 
and boas, leaving only the smallest possible vacancy for the 
eyefc. This was exceedingly disagreeable, on account of the 
moisture from the breath, which kept the squirrel tails con* 
stantly wet and sticky. Nevertheless, the cold penetrated 
through the little aperture; my eyes and forehead were like 



170 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

marble, the eyeballs like lumps of ice, sending a sharp pang 
of cold backward into the brain. I realised distinctly how 
a statue must f iel. 

Beyond Pello, where we stopped to " fire up," our road 
lay mostly on the Russian side. While crossing the Tornea 
at sunset, we met a drove of seventy or eighty reindeer, in 
charge of a dozen Lapps, who were bringing a cargo from 
Haparanda. We were obliged to turn off the road and 
wait until they had passed. The landlord at Juoxengi, who 
wa,« quite drunk, hailed us with a shout and a laugh, and 
began talking about Kautokeino. We had some difficulty 
in getting rid of his conversation, and his importunities for 
us to stay all night. This was the place where they tried 
to make us leave, on the way up. I replied to the landlord's 
torrent of Finnish with some choice specimens of Kentucky 
oratory, which seemed to make but little impression on him. 
He gave us excellent horses, however, and we sped away 
again, by the light of another brilliant auroral arch. 

Our long exposure to the extreme cold, coupled as it was 
with lack of rest and nourishment, now began to tell upon 
us. Our temperature fell so low that we again had recourse 
to the rum, which alone, I verily believe, prevented us from 
freezing bodily. jOne is locked in the iron embrace of the 
polar air, until the very life seems to be squeezed out of him./ 
I huddled myself in my poesk, worked my fingers and toes, 
buried my nose in the damp, frozen fur, and laboured like 
a Hercules to keep myself awake and alive — but almost 
in vain. Braisted and I kept watch over each other, 
or attempted it, for about the only consciousness either 
of us had was that of the peril of falling asleep. We. talked 



EXPERIENCES OF ARCTIC WEATHER. \f { 

of anything and everything, sang, thumped each other, but 
the very next minute would catch ourselves falling over the 
side of the sled. A thousand dreams worried my brain and 
mixed themselves with my talk ; and the absurdities thus 
created helped to arouse me. Speaking of seeing some 
wolves in the woods of California, I gravely continued : " I 
took out my sword, sharpened it on the grindstone and dared 
him to come on," when a punch in the ribs stopped me. 
Another time, while talking of hippopotami in the White 
Nile, I said : " If you want any skins, you must go to the 
Hudson's Bay Company. They have a depot of them on 
Vancouver's Island." Braisted gave me much trouble, by 
assuring me in the most natural wide-awake voice that he 
was not in the least sleepy, when the reins had dropped from 
his handy and his head rocked on his shoulder. I could 
never be certain whether he was asleep or awake. Our only 
plan was not to let the conversation flag a minute. 

At Torakankorwa we changed horses without delay, and 
hurried on to Matarengi. On turning out of^the road to 
avoid a hay- sled, we were whirled completely over. There 
was no fun in this, at such a time. I fell head foremost 
into deep snow, getting a lump in my right eye, which com- 
pletely blinded me for a time. My forehead, eyebrows, and 
the bridge of my nose were insufferably painful. On reach- 
ing Matarengi I found my nose frozen through, and consid- 
erably swollen. The people were in bed, but we went into 
the kitchen, where a dozen or more were stowed about, and 
called for the landlord. Three young girls, who were in 
bed in one corner, rose and dressed themselves in our pres* 
ence without the least hesitation, boiled some milk, and gav« 



1/2 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

us bread and butter. We had a single small bed, which kept 
us warm by obliging us to lie close. Sometime in the 
night, two Swedes arrived, who blustered about and made 
so much noise, that Braisted finally silenced them by threats 
df personal violence, delivered in very good English. 

In the morning the mercury froze, after showing 49° be 
aOW zero. The cold was by this time rather alarming, especi- 
ally after our experiences of the previous day. The air was 
hazy with the fine, frozen atoms of moisture, a raw wind 
blew from the north, the sky was like steel which has been 
breathed upon — in short, the cold was visible to the naked 
eye. We warmed our gloves and boots, and swathed our 
heads so completely that not a feature was to be seen. I 
had a little loophole between my cap and boa, but it was 
soon filled up with frost from my breath, and helped to keep 
in the warmth. The road was hard and smooth as marble. 
We had good horses, and leaving Avasaxa and the polar cir- 
cle behind us. we sped down the solid bed of the Tornea to 
Niemis. On the second stage we began to freeze for want of 
food. The air was really terrible ; nobody ventured out of 
doors who could stay in the house. The smoke was white 
and dense, like steam; the wind was a blast from the Norse- 
man's hell, and the touch of it on your face almost made yon 
gcream. Nothing can be more severe — flaying, branding with 
a hot iron, cutting with a dull knife, &c, may be something 
like it, but no worse. 

The 3un rose through the frozen air a little after nine 
and mounted quite high at noon. At Packila we procured 
some hot milk and smoked reindeer, tolerable horses and ;. 
stout boy of fourteen to drive our baggage-sled. Every oiv 



EXPERIENCES OF ARCTIC WEATHER. |73 

we met had a face either frozen, or about to freeze. Such a 
succession of countenances, fiery red, purple, blue, black al 
most, with white frost spots, and surrounded with rings of 
icy hair and fur, 1 never saw before. We thanked God 
again and again that our faces were turned southward, and 
that the deadly wind was blowing on our backs. When we 
reached Korpykila, our boy's face, though solid and greasy 
as a bag of lard, was badly frozen. His nose was quite 
white and swollen, as if blistered by fire, and there were fro- 
zen blotches on both cheeks. The landlord rubbed the parts 
instantly with rum, and performed the same operation on 
our noses. 

On this day, for the first time in more than a month, we 
saw daylight, and I cannot describe how cheering was the 
effect of those pure, white, brilliant rays, in spite of the iron 
landscape they illumined. It was no longer the setting light 
of the level Arctic sun ; not the twilight gleams of shifting 
colour, beautiful, but dim ; not the faded, mock daylight 
which sometimes glimmered for a half-hour at noon ; tut 
the true white, full, golden day, which we had almost for- 
gotten. So nearly, indeed, that I did not for some time sus- 
pect the cause of the unusual whiteness and brightness. Its 
effect upon the trees was superb. The twigs of the birch 
and the needles of the fir were coated with crystal, and 
sparkled like jets of jewels spouted up from the immaculate 
snow. The clumps of birches can be compared to nothing 
but frozen fountains — frozen in full action, with their show- 
ery sheaves of spray arrested before they fell. It was a won- 
derful, a fairy w orld we beheld — too beautiful to be lifeless 
but ?very face we met reminded us the more that this was 



174 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

the chill beauty of Death — of dead Nature. Death was in 
the sparkling air, in the jewelled trees, in the spotless snow. 
Take off your mitten, and his hand will grasp yours like a 
vice ; uncover your mouth, and your frozen lips will soon 
acknowledge his kiss. 

Even while I looked the same icy chills were running 
through my blood, precursors of that drowsy torpor which 
I was so anxious to avoid. But no ; it would come, and 1 
dozed until both hands became so stiff that it was barely 
possible to restore their powers of motion and feeling. It 
was not quite dark when we reached Kuckula, the last sta- 
tion, but thence to Haparanda our horses were old and lazy, 
and our postillion was a little boy, whose weak voice had no 
effect. Braisted kept his hands warm in jerking and urging, 
but I sat and froze. Village after village was passed, but 
we looked in vain for the lights of Tornea. We were 
thoroughly exhausted with our five days' battle against the 
dreadful cold, when at last a row of lights gleamed across 
the river, and we drove up to the inn. The landlord met 
us with just the same words as on the first visit, and, strange 
enough, put us into the same room, where the same old 
Norrland merchant was again quartered in the same stage 
of tipsiness. The kind Fredrika did not recognise us in 
our Lapp dresses, until I had unrobed, when she cried out in 
joyful surprise, " Why, you were here before !" 

We had been so completely chilled tnat it was a long 
time before any perceptible warmth returned. But a gener- 
ous meal, with a bottle of what was called "gammed scherry 7 
(though the Devil and his servants, the manufacturers of 
chemical wine?, only knew what it was), started the flagging 



EXPERIENCES OF ARCTIC WEATHER, J^ 

circulation. We then went to bed, tingling and stinging in 
every nerve from the departing cold. Every one complained 
of the severity of the weather, which, we were told, had not 
been equalled for many years past. But such a bed, and 
such a rest as I had ! Lying between clean sheets, with my 
feet buried in soft fur, I wallowed in a flood of downy, deli- 
cious sensations until sunrise. In the morning we ventured 
to wash our faces and brush our teeth for the first time in 
five days, put on clean shirts, and felt once more like re- 
sponsible beings. The natives never wash when the weather 
is so cold, and cautioned us against it. The wind had fallen 
but the mercury again froze at 47° below zero. Neverthe- 
less, we went out after breakfast to call upon Dr. Wretholm, 
and walk over the Tornea. 

The old Doctor was overjoyed to see us again. "Ah !" 
said he, "it is a good fortune that you have got back alive. 
When the weather was so cold, I thought of you, travelling 
over the Norwegian /jailer, and thought you must certainly 
be frozen to death." His wife was no less cordial in her 
welcome. They brought us ale and Swedish punch, with 
reindeer cheese for our frozen noses, and insisted on having 
their horse put into the sled to take us over to Tornea and 
bring us back to dinner. The doctor's boy drove us, facing 
the wind with our faces exposed, at — 42°, but one night's 
rest and good food enabled us to bear it without inconveni- 
ence. Tornea is a plain Swedish town, more compactly 
built than Haparanda, yet scarcely larger. The old church 
is rather picturesque, and there were some tolerable houses 
which appeared to be government buildings, but the only 
things particularly Russian which we noticed were a Cos- 



|76 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

sack sentry, whose purple face showed that he was nearly 
frozen, and a guide-post with " 150 versts to Uleaborg* 
upon it. On returning to the Doctor's we found a meal 
ready, with a capital salad of frozen salmon, bouillon, ale^ 
and coffee. The family were reading the Swedish transla- 
tion of " Dred" in the Aftonblad, and were interested in 
hearing some account of Mrs. Beecher Stowe. We had a 
most agreeable and interesting visit to these kind, simple- 
hearted people. 

I made a sunset sketch of Tornea. I proposed also to 
draw Fredrika, but she at once refused, in great alarm. 
" Not for anything in the world," said she, a would I have it 
done !" What superstitious fears possessed her I could not 
discover. We made arrangements to start for Kalix the next 
day, on our way to Stockholm. The extreme temperature 
still continued. The air was hazy with the frozen moisture 
— the smoke froze in solid masses — the snow was brittle and 
hard as metal — iron stuck like glue — in short, none of the 
signs of an Arctic winter were wanting. Nevertheless, we 
trusted to the day's rest and fatter fare on the road for 
strength to continue the battle. 



INCIDENTS OF THE RETURN JOURNEY 17? 



CHAPTER XV. 

INCIDENTS OF THE RETURN JOURNEY. 

We left Haparanda on the 30th of January. After six 
days of true Arctic weather — severer than any registered by 
De Haven's expedition, during a winter in the polar ice — 
the temperature rose suddenly to 26° below zero. We were 
happy and jolly at getting fairly started for Stockholm at 
last, and having such mild (!) weather to travel in. The 
lifference in our sensations was remarkable. We could 
boldly bare our faces and look about us ; our feet kept warm 
and glowing, and we felt no more the hazardous chill and 
torpor of the preceding days. On the second stage the 
winter road crossed an arm of the Bothnian Gulf. The 
path was well marked out with fir-trees — a pretty avenue, 
four or five miles in length, over the broad, white plain. 
On the way we saw an eruption of the ice, which had been 
violently thrown up by the confined air. Masses three feet 
thick and solid as granite were burst asunder and piled atop 
of each other. 

We travelled too fast this day for the proper enjoymen 
of the wonderful scenery on the road. I thought I had ex- 
hausted my admiration of these winter forests — but no, 



178 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

miracles will never cease. Such fountains, candelabra. 
Gothic pinnacles, tufts of plumes, colossal sprays of coral, 
and the embodiments of the fairy pencillings of frost on 
window panes, wrought in crystal and silver, are beyond the 
power of pen or pencil. It was a wilderness of beauty ; we 
knew not where to look, nor which forms to choose, in the 
dazzling confusion. Silent and all unmoved by the wind 
they stood, sharp and brittle as of virgin ore — not trees of 
earth, but the glorified forests of All-Father Odin's paradise, 
the celestial city of Asgaard. No living forms of vegetation 
are so lovely. Tropical palms, the tree-ferns of Penang, the 
lotus of Indian rivers, the feathery bamboo, the arrowy areca 
— what are they beside these marvellous growths of winter, 
these shining sprays of pearl, ivory and opal, gleaming in 
the soft orange light of the Arctic sun ? 

At Sangis we met a handsome young fellow with a mous- 
tache, who proved to be the Lav smart of Kalix. I was 
surprised to find that he knew all about us. He wondered 
at our coming here north, when we might stay at home 
thought once would be enough for us. and had himself been 
no further than Stockholm. I recognised our approach to 
Nasby by the barrels set in the snow — an ingenious plan of 
marking the road in places where the snow drifts, as the 
wind creates a whirl or eddy around them. We were glad 
to see Nasby and its two-story inn once more. The pleasant 
little hand-maiden smiled all over her face when she saw ug 
again. Nasby is a crack place: the horses were ready at 
once, and fine creatures they were, taking us up the Kalix 
to Mansbyn, eight miles in one hour. The road was hard 
as a rock and smooth as a table, from much ploughing and 
rolling 



INCIDENTS OF THE RETURN JOURNEY. J 79 

The next day was dark and lowering, threatening snow, 
with a raw wind from the north-west, and an average tem- 
perature of 15° below zero. We turned the north-western 
corner of the Bothnian Gulf in the afternoon, and pushed 
on to Old Lulea by supper-time. At Perso, on the journey 
north, I had forgotten my cigar-case, an old, familiar friend 
of some years' standing, and was overjoyed to find that the 
servant-girl had carefully preserved it, thinking I might 
return some day. We drove through the streets of empty 
stables and past the massive church of Old Lulea, to the inn, 
where we had before met the surly landlord. There he was 
again, and the house was full, as the first time. However 
we obtained the promise of a bed in the large room, and 
meanwhile walked up and down to keep ourselves warm. 
The guests' rooms were filled with gentlemen of the neigh 
borhood, smoking and carousing. After an hour had passed, 
a tall, handsome, strong fellow came out of the rooms, and 
informed us that as we were strangers he would give up the 
room to us and seek lodgings elsewhere. He had drunk just 
enough to be mellow and happy, and insisted on delaying his 
own supper to let us eat first. Who should come along at 
this juncture but the young fellow we had seen in company 
with Brother Horton at Mansbyn, who hailed us with: 
"Thank you for the last time!" With him was a very 
gentlemanly man who spoke English. They were both ac- 
companied by ladies, and were returning from the ball of 
Pitea. The guests all treated us with great courtesy and 
respect, and the landlord retired and showed his surly face 
no more. Our first friend informed me that he had been 
born and brought up in the neighborhood, but could not re 
collect such a severe winter. 



[80 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

As we descended upon the Lulea River in the morning we 
met ten sleighs coming from the ball. The horses were all 
in requisition at the various stations, but an extra supply 
had been provided, and we were not detained anywhere 
The Norrland sleds are so long that a man may place his 
baggage in the front part and lie down at full length behind 
it. A high back shields the traveller from the wind, and 
upon a step in the rear stands the driver, with a pair of rein 
as long as a main-top-bowline, in order to reach the horse, 
who is at the opposite end of a very long pair of shafts. In 
these sleds one may travel with much comfort, and less dan- 
ger of overturning, though not so great speed as in the short, 
light, open frames we bought in Sundsvall. The latter are 
seldom seen so far north, and were a frequent object of 
curiosity to the peasants at the stations. There is also a 
sled with a body something like a Hansom cab, entirely 
closed, with a window in front, but they are heavy, easily 
overturned, and only fit for luxurious travellers. 

We approached Pitea at sunset. • The view over the broad 
embouchure of the river, studded with islands, was quite 
picturesque, and the town itself, scattered along the shore 
and over the slopes of the hills made a fair appearance. It 
reminded me somewhat of a small New-England country 
town, with its square frame houses and an occasional garden. 
Here I was rejoiced by the sight of a cherry-tree, the most 
northern fruit-tree which I saw. On our way up, we thought 
Pitea, at night and in a snow-storm, next door to the North 
Pole. Now, coming from the north, seeing its snowy hills 
and house-roofs rosy with the glow of sunset, it was warm 
and southern by contrast. The four principal towns 0/ 



INCIDENTS OF THE RETURN JOURNEY. 181 

West and North Bothnia are thus characterised in an old 
verse of Swedish doggerel : Umea, the fine ; Pitea, the 
rceedle-makhfor ; Lulea, the lazy ; and in Tornea, every* 
body gets drunk. 

We took some refreshment, pushed on and reached Abyn 
between nine and ten o'clock, having travelled seventy miles 
since morning. The sleighing was superb. How I longed 
for a dashing American cutter, with a span of fast horses, a 
dozen strings of bells and an ebony driver ! Such a turn- 
out would rather astonish the northern solitudes, and the 
slew, quaint northern population The next day we had a 
temperature of 2° above zero, with snow falling, but suc- 
ceeded in reaching Skelleftea for breakfast. For the last 
two or three miles we travelled along a hill side overlooking 
a broad, beautiful valley, cleared and divided into cultivated 
fields, and thickly sprinkled with villages and farm-houses. 
Skelleftea itself made an imposing appearance, as the lofty 
dome of its Grecian church came in sight around the shoul- 
der of the hill. We took the wrong road, and in turning 
about split one of our shafts, but Braisted served it with 
some spare rope, using the hatchet-handle a3 a marlingspike, 
so that it held stoutly all the rest of the way to Stock- 
holm. 

We went on to Burea that night, and the next day to 
Djekneboda, sixty miles farther. The temperature fluctu- 
ated about the region of zero, with a heavy sky and light 
snow-falls. As we proceeded southward the forests became 
larger, and the trees began to show a dark green foliage 
where the wind had blown away the snow, which was re- 
freshing to see, after the black or dark indigo hue they wear 



(82 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

farther north. On the 4th of February, at noon, we pass* 
ed through Umea, and congratulated ourselves on getting 
below the southern limit of the Lapland climate. There 
is nothing to say about these towns ; they are mere village? 
with less than a thousand inhabitants each, and no peculia* 
interest, either local or historical, attaching to any of them 
Wo have slept in Lulea, and Pitea, and dined in Umea, — 
and further my journal saith not. 

The 5th, however, was a day to be noticed. We started 
from Angersjo, with a violent snow storm blowing in our 
teeth — thermometer at zero. Our road entered the hilly 
country of Norrland, where we found green forests, beauti- 
ful little dells, pleasant valleys, and ash and beech inter- 
mingled with the monotonous but graceful purple birch. 
We were overwhelmed with gusts of fine snow shaken from 
the trees as we passed. Blinding white clouds swept the 
road, and once again we heard the howl of the wind among 
boughs that were free to toss. At Afwa, which we reached 
at one o'clock, we found a pale, weak, sickly young Swede, 
with faded moustaches, who had decided to remain there 
until next day. This circumstance induced us to go on, 
but after we had waited half an hour and were preparing to 
start, the weather being now ten times worse than before, he 
announced his resolution to start also. He had drunk four 
large glasses of milk and two cups of coffee during the 
half hour. 

We went ahead, breaking through drifts of loose snow 
which overtopped our sleds, and lashed by the furious wind, 
which drove full in our faces. There were two or three 
plows at work out we had no benefit from them, so long as 



INCIDENTS OF THE RETURN JOURNEY. Ig3 

we were not directly in their wake. Up and down went 
our way, over dark hills and through valleys wild with the 
storm, and ending in chaos as they opened toward the Both- 
nian Gulf. Hour after hour passed by, the storm still in- 
creased, and the snow beat in our eyes so that we were com- 
pletely blinded. It was impossible to keep them open, and 
yet the moment we shut them the lashes began to freeze to- 
gether. I had a heavy weight of ice on my lids, and long 
icicles depending from every corner of my beard. Yet our 
frozen noses appeared to be much improved by the exposure, 
and began to give promise of healing without leaving a red 
blotch as a lasting record of what they had endured. We 
finally gave up all attempts to see or to guide the horse, but 
plunged along at random through the chaos, until the pos- 
tillion piloted our baggage-sled into the inn-yard of Onska, 
and our horse followed it. The Swede was close upon our 
heels, but 1 engaged a separate room, so that we were freed 
from the depressing influence of his company. He may have 
been the best fellow in the world, so far as his heart was con- 
cerned, but was too weak in the knees to be an agreeable as- 
sociate. AThere was no more stiffness of fibre in him than in 
a wet towel, and I would as soon wear a damp shirt as live 
in the same room with such a man. After all, it is not 
strange that one prefers nerve and energy, even when they 
are dashed with a flavour of vice, to the negative virtues of 
a character too weak and insipid to be tempted) 

Our inn. in this little Norrland village, was about as 
comfortable and as elegant as three-fourths of the hotels in 
Stockholm. The rooms were well furnished ; none of the 
usual appliances were wanting; the attendance was all thai 



X84 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

could be desired ; the fare good and abundant, and the 
charges less than half of what would be demanded in the 
capital. Yet Stockholm, small as it is, claims to be for 
Sweden what Paris is to France, and its inhabitants look 
with an eye of compassion on those of the provinces. Norr- 
land, in spite of its long winter, has a bracing, healthy cli- 
mate, and had it not been for letters from home, facilities 
for studying Swedish, occasional recreation and the other 
attractions of a capital, I should have preferred waiting in 
some of those wild valleys for the spring to open. The peo- 
ple, notwithstanding their seclusion from the world, have a 
brighter and more intelligent look than the peasants of Upp- 
land, and were there a liberal system of common school edu- 
cation in Sweden, the raw material here might be worked 
up into products alike honourable and useful to the coun- 
try. 

The Norrlanders seem to me to possess an indolent, al- 
most phlegmatic temperament, and yet there are few who do 
not show a latent capacity for exertion. The latter trait, 
perhaps, is the true core and substance of their nature; tho 
former is an overgrowth resulting from habits and circum- 
stances. Like the peasants, or rather small farmers, further 
north, they are exposed to the risk of seeing their summer's 
labours rendered fruitless by a single night of frost. Such 
a catastrophe, which no amount of industry and foresight 
can prevent, recurring frequently (perhaps once in three 
years on an average), makes them indifferent, if not reck- 
less ; while that patience and cheerfulness which is an in- 
tegral part of the Scandinavian as of the Saxon character, 
renders them contented and unrepining under such repeated 



INCIDENTS OP THE RETURN JOURNEY. 185 

disappointments. There is the stuff here for a noble peo- 
ple, although nature and a long course of neglect and mis* 
rule have done their best to destroy it. 

The Norrlanders live simply, perhaps frugally, but there 
seems to be little real destitution among them. We saw 
sometimes in front of a church, a representation of a beg- 
gar with his hat in his hand, under which was an iron box, 
with an appeal to travellers to drop something in for the 
poor of the parish ; but of actual beggars we found none. 
The houses, although small, are warm and substantial, mostly 
with double windows, and a little vestibule in front of the 
door, to create an intermediate temperature between the 
outer and inner air. The beds, even in many of the inns, 
are in the family room, but during the day are either con- 
verted into sofas or narrow frames which occupy but little 
space. At night, the bedstead is drawn out to the required 
breadth, single or double, as may be desired. The family 
room is always covered with a strong home-made rag car- 
pet, the walls generally hung with colored prints and litho- 
graphs, illustrating religion or royalty, and as many green- 
house plants as the owner can afford to decorate the windows. 
I have seen, even beyond Umea, some fine specimens of c ic- 
tus, pelargonium, calla, and other exotics. It is singular 
that, with the universal passion of the Swedes for flowers 
and for music, they have produced no distinguished painters 
or composers — but, indeed, a Linnaeus. 

We spent the evening cosily in the stately inn's best room, 
with its white curtains, polished floor, and beds of sumptuous 
linen. The great clipper-plows were out early in the morn- 
ing, to cut a path through the drifts of the storm, but it wag 



186 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

nearly noon before the road was sufficiently cleared to ena* 
ble us to travel. The temperature, by contrast with what 
we had so recently endured, seemed almost tropical — actually 
25° above zero, with a soft, southern breeze, and patches of 
brilliant blue sky between the parting clouds. Our deliv- 
erance from the Arctic cold was complete. 



CONCLUSION OF THE ARCTIC TRIP fc 6y 



CHAPTER XVI. 

CONCLUSION OF THK ARCTIC TRIP. 

On leaving Onska, we experienced considerable delay on 
account of the storm. The roads were drifted to such an 
extent that even the ploughs could not be passed through in 
many places, and the peasants were obliged to work with their 
broad wooden spades. The sky, however, was wholly clear 
and of a pure daylight blue, such as we had not seen for 
two months. The sun rode high in the firmament, like a 
strong healthy sun again, with some warmth in his beams 
as they struck our faces, and the air was all mildness and 
balm. It was heavenly, after our Arctic life. The country, 
too, boldly undulating, with fir-forested hills, green and 
warm in the sunshine, and wild, picturesque valleys sunk 
between, shining in their covering of snow, charmed us com 
pletely. Again we saw the soft blue of the distant ranges 
as they melted away behind each other, suggesting space, 
and light, and warmth. /Give me daylight and sunshine, 
after alljK Our Arctic^trip seems like a long, long night 
full of splendid dreams, but yet night and not day./^ 

On the road, we bought a quantity of the linen handker- 
chiefs of the country, at prices varying from twenty-five to 



JS8 NORTHERN TRAVUL. 

forty cents a piece, according to the size and quality. The 

bedding, in all the inns, was of home-made linen, and I do 

not recollect an instance where it was not brought out, fresh 

and sweet from the press, for us. In this, as in all other 

household arrangements, the people are very tidy and cleanly 

though a little deficient as regards their own persons. Their 

clothing, however, is of a healthy substantial character, and 

the women consult comfort rather than ornament. Many 

of them wear cloth pantaloons under their petticoats, which, 

therefore, they are able to gather under their arms in wading 

through snow-drifts. 1 did not see a low-necked dress or a 

thin shoe north of Stockholm. 

" The damsel who trips at daybreak 
Is shod like a mountaineer." 

Yet a sensible man would sooner take such a damsel to wife 
than any delicate Cinderella of the ball-room. I protest I 
lose all patience when I think of the habits of our Ameri- 
can women, especially our country girls. If ever the Saxon 
race does deteriorate on our side of "the Atlantic, as some 
ethnologists anticipate, it will be wholly their fault. 

We stopped for the night at Hornas, and had a charming 
ride the next day among the hills and along the inlets of the 
Gulf. The same bold, picturesque scenery, which had ap- 
peared so dark and forbidding to us on our way north, now, 
under the spring-like sky, cheered and inspired us. At the 
station of Docks ta, we found the peasant girls scrubbing 
<he outer steps, barefooted. At night, we occupied our old 
quarters at Weda, on the Angermann river. The next morn- 
ing the temperature was 25° above zero, and at noon rose to 
39\ Tt was delightful to travel once more with cap-lappetp 



CONCLUSION OF THE ARCTIC TRIP. 189 

turned up, fur collar turned down, face and neck free, and 
hands bare. On our second stage we had an overgrown, in- 
solent boy for postillion, who persisted in driving slow, and 
refused to let us pass him. He finally became impertinent, 
whereupon Braisted ran forward and turned hi3 horse out 
of the road, so that I could drive past. The boy then seized 
my horse by the head; B. pitched him into a snow-bank, 
and we took the lead. We had not gone far before we took 
the road to Hernosand, through mistake, and afterwards 
kept it through spite, thus adding about seven miles to our 
day's journey. A stretch of magnificent dark-green forests 
brought us to a narrow strait which separates the island of 
Hernosand from the main land. The ice was already soft- 
ening, and the upper layer repeatedly broke through 
under us. 

Hernosand is a pretty town, of about 2000 inhabitants, 
with a considerable commerce. It is also the capital of the 
most northern bishopric of Sweden. The church, on an 
eminence above the town, is, next to that of Skeleftea, the 
finest we saw in the north. We took a walk while break- 
fast was preparing, and in the space of twenty minutes saw 
all there was to be seen. By leaving the regular road, how- 
ever, we had incurred a delay of two hours, which did not 
add to our amiability. Therefore, when the postillion, fu- 
riously angry now as well as insolent, came in to threaten us 
with legal prosecution in case we did not pay him heavy 
damages for what he called an assault, I cut the discussior 
short by driving him out of the room, and that was the last 
we saw of him. We reached Fjal as the moon rose, — a 

globe of silver fire in a perfect violet sky. Two merry boys, 
9* 



190 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

who sang and shouted the whole way, drove us like the 
wind around the bay to Wifsta. The moonlight was as 
bright as the Arctic noonday, and the snowy landscape flash- 
ed and glittered under its resplendent shower. From the 
last hill we saw Sundsvall, which lay beneath us, with its 
wintry roofs, like a city of ivory and crystal, shining for 
us with the fairy promise of a warm supper and a good 
bed. 

On the 9th, we drove along the shores of the magnificent 
bay of Sundsvall. Six vessels lay frozen in, at a consider- 
able distance from the town. Near the southern extremity 
of the bay, we passed the village of Svartvik, which, the 
postillion informed us, is all owned by one person, who car- 
ries on ship-building. The appearance of the place justifi- 
ed his statements. The labourers' houses were mostly new, 
all built on precisely the same model, and with an unusual air 
of comfort and neatness. In the centre of the village stood 
a handsome white church, with a clock tower, and near it the 
parsonage and school-house. At the foot of the slope were 
the yards, where several vessels were on the stocks, and a 
number of sturdy workmen busy at their several tasks. 
There was an air of " associated labour" and the u model 
lodging-house" about the whole place, which was truly re- 
freshing to behold, except a touch of barren utilitarianism 
in the cutting away of the graceful firs left from the forest 
and thus depriving the houses of all shade and ornament 
We met many wood- teams, hauling knees and spars, and 
were sorely troubled to get out of their way. Beyond the 
bay, the hills of Norrland ceased, sinking into those broad 
monotonous undulations which extend nearly all the way to 



CONCLUSION OF THE ARCTIC TRIP. 191 

Stockholm. Gardens with thriving fruit-trees now began 
to be more frequent, giving evidence of a climate where maL 
has a right to live, j \ doubt whether it was ever meant that 
the human race should settle in any zone so frigid that fruit 
cannot ripen. / 

Thenceforth we had the roughest roads which were ever 
made upon a foundation of snow. The increase in travel 
and in tne temperature of the air, and most of all, the 
short, loosely-attached sleds used to support the ship-timber, 
had worn them into a succession of holes, channels, and 
troughs, in and out of which we thumped from morning till 
right. On going down hill, the violent shocks frequently 
threw our runners completely into the air, and the wrench 
was so great that it was a miracle how the sled escaped frac- 
ture. All the joints, it is true, began to work apart, and the 
ash shafts bent in the most ticklish way ; but the rough lit- 
tle conveyance which had already done us such hard service 
held out gallantly to the end. We reached Mo Myskie on 
the second night after leaving Sundsvall, and I was greeted 
with " Salaam aleikoom, ya Sidi ! " from the jolly old 
Tripolitan landlord. There was an unusual amount of 
travel northward on the following day, < nd we were detain- 
ed at every station, so that it was nearly midnight before 
we reached the extortionate inn at Gefle. The morning 
dawned with a snow-storm, but we were within 120 miles of 
Stockholm, and drove in the teeth of it to Elf karleby. The 
renowned cascades of the Dal were by no means what I ex- 
pected, but it was at least a satisfaction to see living water, 
after the silent rivers and fettered rapids of the North. 
The snow was now getting rapidly thinner. So scant 



192 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

was it* on the exposed Upsala plain that we fully expected 
being obliged to leave our sleds on the way. Even before 
reaching Upsala, our postillions chose the less-travelled 
field-roads whenever they led in the same direction, and 
beyond that town we were charged additional post-money 
for the circuits we were obliged to make to keep our runners 
on the snow. On the evening of the 13th we reached 
Rotebro, only fourteen miles from Stockholm, and the next 
morning, in splendid sunshine, drove past Haga park and 
palace, into the North-Gate, down the long Drottninggatan 
and up to Kahn's Hotel, where we presented our sleds to 
the valet-de-place, pulled off our heavy boots, threw aside 
our furs for the remainder of the winter, and sat down to 
read the pile of letters and papers which Herr Kahn brought 
us. It was precisely two months since our departure in 
December, and in that time we had performed a journey of 
2200 miles, 250 of which were by reindeer, and nearly 500 
inside of the Arctic Circle. Our frozen noses had peeled 
off, and the new skin showed no signs of the damage they 
had sustained — so that we had come out of the fight not 
only without a scar, but with a marked increase of robust 
vitality. 

I must confess, however, that, interesting as was the 
journey, and happily as we endured its exposures, I should 
not wish to make it again. It is well to see the North, even 
after the South ; but, as there is no one who visits the 
tropics without longing ever after to return again, so, I im- 
agine, there is no one who, having once seen a winter inside 
the Arctic Circle, would ever wish to see another. In spite 
of the warm, gorgeous, and ever-changing play of colour 



CONCLUSION OF THE ARCTIC TRIP. J 93 

hovering over the path of the unseen sun, in spite of the 
dazzling auroral dances and the magical transfiguration of 
the forests, the absence of true daylight and of all signs of 
warmth and life exercises at last a depressing influence on 
the spirits. The snow, so beautiful while the sunrise setting 
illumination lasts, wears a ghastly monotony at all other 
times, and the air, so exhilarating, even at the lowest tem- 
perature, becomes an enemy to be kept out, when you know 
its terrible power to benumb and destroy. To the native of 
a warmer zone, this presence of an unseen destructive force 
in nature weighs like a nightmare upon the mind. The 
inhabitants of the North also seem to undergo a species of 
hibernation, as well as the animals. Nearly half their time 
is passed in sleep; they are silent in comparison with the 
natives of the other parts of the world ; there is little ex- 
uberant gaiety and cheerfulness, but patience, indifference, 
apathy almost. Aspects of nature which appear to be hos- 
tile to man, often develop and bring into play his best 
energies, but there are others which depress and paralyse his 
powers. I am convinced that the extreme North, like the 
Tropics, is unfavourable to the best mental and physical 
condition of the human race. The proper zone of man lies 
between 30° and 55° North. 

To one who has not an unusual capacity to enjoy the 
experiences of varied travel, 1 should not recommend such a 
journey. With me, the realization of a long-cherished 
desire, the sense of novelty, the opportunity for contrasting 
extremes, and the interest with which the people inspired me, 
far outweighed all inconveniences and privations. In fact, 
1 was nDt fully aware of the gloom and cold in which I had 



194 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

lived until we returned far enough southward to enjoy eight 
hours of sunshine, and a temperature above the freezing 
point. It was a second birth into a living world. Al- 
though we had experienced little positive suffering from the 
intense cold, except on the return from Muoniovara to Ha-. 
paranda, our bodies had already accommodated themselves 
fco a low temperature, and the sudden transition to 30° 
above zero came upon us like the warmth of June. My 
friend, Dr. Kane, once described to me the comfort he felt 
when the mercury rose to 7° below zero, making it pleasant 
to be on deck. The circumstance was then incomprehensible 
to me, but is now quite plain. I can also the better realise 
the terrible sufferings of himself and his men, exposed to a 
storm in a temperature of — 47°, when the same degree of 
cold, with a very light wind, turned my own blood to ice. 

Most of our physical sensations are relative, and the mere 
enumeration of so many degrees of heat or cold gives no idea 
of their effect upon the system. I should have frozen at 
home in a temperature which I found very comfortable in 
Lapland, with my solid diet of meat and butter, and my 
garments of reindeer. The following is a correct scale ot 
the physical effect of cold, calculated for the latitude of 65° 
to 70° North : 

15° above zero — Unpleasantly warm. 

Zero — Mild and agreeable. 

10° below zero — Pleasantly fresh and bracing 

20° below zero— Sharp, but not severely cold. Keep your 
fingers and toes in motion, and rub your nose occasionally. 

30° below zero — Very cold ; take particular care of youi 
uose and extremities : eat the fattest food, and plenty of it 



CONCLUSION OF THE ARCTIC TRIP. 



*95 



40° below — Intensely cold ; keep awake at all hazards, 
muffle up to the eyes, and test your circulation frequently, 
that it may not stop somewhere before you know it. 

50° below- 



-A struggle for life. 



* We kept a record of the temperature from the time we left SundsvaL 
(Dec. 21) until our return to Stockholm. As a matter of interest, I sub 
join it, changing the degrees from Reaumur to Fahrenheit. We tested 
the thermometer repeatedly on the way, and found it very generally re- 
liable, although in extremely low temperature it showed from one to two 
degrees more than a spirit thermometer. The observations were taken 
at from 9 to 8 A. M., 12 to 2 P. M., and 7 to 11 P. M , whenever it was 
possible. 







Morning. 


Noon, 


Evening. 


December 21 


. + 6 


.. 


zero. 




22 


+ 6 


.. 


— 3 




23 


—22 


—29 


—22 




24 


— 6 


—22 


—22 




25 


—35 


—38 


mer. frozen 




26 


—30 


—24 


—31 




27 (storm) 


—18 


—18 


—18 




28 (storm) 


zero. 


zero. 


zero. 




29 


— 6 


—13 


—13 




30 


— 6 


—13 


—22 




31 (storm) 


— 3 


+ 9 


+ 9 


January 


1, 1857 


- +3 


+ 3 


+ 3 


<i 


2 


— 6 


— 6 


— 6 


u 


3 . ■' , 


—30 


—22 


—22 


it 


4 


—18 


.. 


—22 


u 


5 


—31 


—30 


—33 


u 


6 


—20 


— 4 


zero. 


u 


7 


. +4 


+18 


+25 


a 


8 


. +18 


.. 


—11 


a 


9 


—28 


—44 


-44 


u 


10 (storm) 


— 5 


.. 


— 2 


M 


U (storm) 


— 2 


zero, 


— 5 



196 



NORTHERN TRAVEL. 



,, ■ 






Morning. 


Noon. 


Evening. 


January 


12, 


1857 (stoim) — 5 


— 4 


— 4 


« 


13 (storm) 


+ 5 


+ 5 


+ 5 


a 


14 


. 


— 6 


—13 


— 6 


it 


15 


. 


. * — 8 


—13 


—33 


•< 


16 


. 


— 9 


—10 


-11 


<: 


17 


;%) 


zero. 


zero. 


zero. 


M 


18 




—10 


—18 


—23 


(4 


19 | 


[storm) 


. — 3 


— 3 


— 9 


il 


20 




+20 


-. 


+ e 


ii 


21 


. 


— 4 


zero. 


zero. 


U 


22 




+ 2 


— 6 


—13 


Ik 


23 


. 


—13 


— 3 


—13 


a 


24 




—15 


—22 


—44 


ii 


25 mer. froz. , 


—50? 


—42 


mer. frozen 


it 


26 




—45 


—35 


—39 


u 


27 


. fr 


ozen —47 ? 


—45 


—35 


ii 


28 


, fr 


ozen — 49? 


—47 


—44 


*< 


29 


. 


—47? 


—43 


—43 


u 


30 


• , 


—27 


—11 


—35 


it 


31 


. 


—17 


—16 


— 7 


tfabraary 


1 


. 


zero. 


— 9 


—13 


it 


2 


. 


+ 2 


+ 6 


zero. 


a 


3 


. 


zero. 


zero. 


zero. 


u 


4 


. 


— 9 


zero. 


— 3 


•t 


5 (storm) 


+ 3 


+ 3 


+ 3 


M 


6 


. 


+25 


+25 


+18 


t< 


7 




+14 


+18 


+25 


M 


8 


. 


+25 


+39 


+22 


M 


9 


. 


+ 5 


+22 


+16 


a 


10 


. 


+25 


+37 


+37 


^ 


11 


. 


+34 


+34 


+32 


«c 


12 




+32 


+37 


+23 


«* 


13 




+16 


+30 


+21 


a 


14 


* 


+25 


+30 


+25 



LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. l§? 



CHAPTER XVII. 

LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 

The Swedes are proud of Stockholm, and justly so. No 
European capital, except Constantinople, can boast such pic- 
turesque beauty of position, and none whatever affords so 
great a range of shifting yet ever lovely aspects. Travel- 
lers are fond of calling it, in the imitative nomenclature of 
commonplace, the a Venice of the North" — but it is no Ven- 
ice. It is not that swan of the Adriatic, singing her death- 
song in the purple sunset, but a northern eaglet, nested on 
the islands and rocky shores of the pale green Malar lake. 
The Stad, or city proper, occupies three islands, which lie 
in the mouth of the narrow strait, by which the waters of 
the lake, after having come a hundred miles from the west- 
ward, and washed in their course the shores of thirteen hun- 
dred islands, pour themselves into the outer archipelago 
which is claimed by the Baltic Sea. On the largest of 
these islands, according to tradition, Agne, King of Sweden, 
was strangled with his own golden chain, by the Finnish 
princess Skiolfa, whom he had taken prisoner. This was 
yixteen hundred years ago, and a thousand years later, Bir 



JUg NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

ger Jarl, on the same spot, built the stronghold which was 
the seed out of which Stockholm has grown. 

This island, and the adjoining Riddarholm, or Island of 
the Knights, contain all the ancient historic landmarks of 
the city, and nearly all of its most remarkable buildings 
The towers of the Storkyrka and the Riddarholm's Church 
lift themselves high into the air ; the dark red mass of the 
Riddarhus, or House of Nobles, and the white turrets and 
quadrangles of the penitentiary are conspicuous among the 
old white, tile-roofed blocks of houses ; while, rising above 
the whole, the most prominent object in every, view of 
Stockholm, is the Slot, or Royal Palace. This is one of 
the noblest royal residences in Europe. Standing on an im- 
mense basement terrace of granite, its grand quadrangle of 
between three and four hundred feet square, with wings (re- 
sembling, in general design, the Pitti Palace at Florence), is 
elevated quite above the rest of the city, which it crowns as 
with a mural diadem. The chaste and simple majesty of 
this edifice, and its admirable proportions, are a perpetual 
gratification to the eye ; which is always drawn to it, as a 
central point, and thereby prevented from dwelling on what- 
ever inharmonious or unsightly features there may be in the 
general view. 

Splendid bridges of granite connect the island with the 
northern and southern suburbs, each of which is much greater 
n extent than the city proper. The palace fronts directly 
upon the Norrbro, or Northern Bridge, the great thorough 
fare of Stockholm, which leads to the Square of Gustavus 
Adolphus, flanked on either side by the palace of the Crown 
Prince and the Opera House. The northern suburb is the 



LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. ] 99 

fashi >nable quarter, containing all the newest 3treets and 
the handsomest. private residences. The ground rises grad- 
ually from the water, and as very little attention is paid to 
grading, the streets follow the undulations of the low hills 
over which they spread, rising to the windmills on the outer 
heights and sinking into the hollows between. The southern 
suburb, however, is a single long hill, up the steep side of 
which the houses climb, row after row, until they reach the 
Church of St. Catherine, which crowns the very summit. 
In front of the city (that is eastward, and toward the Baltic), 
lie two other islands, connected by bridges with the north- 
ern suburb. Still beyond is the Djurgard, or Deer-Park, a 
singularly picturesque island, nearly the whole of which is 
occupied by a public park, and the summer villas of the 
wealthy Stockholmers. Its natural advantages are superior 
to those of any other park in Europe. Even in April, when 
there was scarcely a sign of spring, its cliffs of grey rock, its 
rolling lawns of brown grass, and its venerable oaks, with 
their iron trunks and gnarled, contorted boughs, with blue 
glimpses of ice-free water on all sides, attracted hundreds 
of visitors daily. 

The streets of Stockholm are, with but two or three ex- 
ceptions, narrow and badly paved. The municipal regula- 
tions in regard to them appear to be sadly deficient. They 
are quite as filthy as those of New- York, and the American 
reader will therefore have some idea of their horrid condi 
tion. A few trottoirs have been recently introduced, but 
even in the Drottning-gatan, the principal street, they are 
barely wide enough for two persons to walk abreast The 
pavements are rough, slipperry, and dangerous both to man 



200 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

and beast. 1 have no doubt that the great number of crip 
pies in Stockholm is owing to this cause. On the othei 
hand, the houses are models of solidity and stability. They 
are all of stone, or brick stuccoed over, with staircases oi 
stone or iron, wood being prohibited by law, and roofs of 
copper, slate or tiles. In fact, the Swedes have singularly 
luxurious ideas concerning roofs, spending much more money 
upon them, proportionately, than on the house itself. You 
even see wooden shanties with copper roofs, got up regardless 
of expense. The houses are "well lighted (which is quite 
necessary in the dark streets), and supplied with double 
windows against the cold. The air-tight Russian stove is 
universal. It has the advantage of keeping up sufficient 
warmth with a very small supply of fuel, but at the expense 
of ventilation. I find nothing yet equal to the old- fashioned 
fire-place in this respect, though I must confess I prefer the 
Russian stove to our hot-air furnaces. Carpets are very 
common in Sweden, and thus the dwellings have an air of 
warmth and comfort which is not found in Germany and 
other parts of the Continent. The arrangements for sleep- 
ing and washing are tolerable, though scanty, as compared 
with England, but the cleanliness of Swedish houses makes 
amends for many deficiencies. 

The manner of living in Stockholm, nevertheless, is not 
very agreeable to the stranger. There is no hotel, except 
Kahn's, where one can obtain both beds and meals. The 
practice is to hire rooms, generally with the privilege of hav- 
ing your coifee in the morning, and to get your meals at a 
restaurant, of which there are many, tolerably cheap and 
not particularly good. Even Davison's, the best and most 



LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 201 

fashionable, has but an ordinary cuisine. Rooms are quite 
dear — particularly during our sojourn, when the Diet waa 
in session and the city crowded with country visitors — and 
the inclusive expenses of living were equal to Berlin and 
greater than in Paris. I found that it cost just about as 
much to be stationary here, as to travel with post-horses in 
the Northern provinces. The Swedes generally have a cup 
of coffee on getting out of bed, or before, a substantial 
Dreakfast at nine, dinner at three, and tea in the evening. 
The wealthier families dine an hour or two later, but the 
crowds at the restaurants indicate the prevailing time. Din- 
ner, and frequently breakfast, is prefaced with a smdrgas 
(butter-goose), consisting of anchovies, pickled herrings, 
cheese and brandy. Soup which is generally sweet, comes in 
the middle and sometimes at the end of dinner, and the 
universal dessert is preserved fruit covered with whipped 
cream. I have had occasion to notice the fondness of the 
Swedes for sugar, which some persons seem to apply to al- 
most every dish, except fish and oysters. I have often seen 
them season crab soup with powdered sugar. A favorite 
dish is raw salmon, buried in the earth until it is quite sod- 
den — a great delicacy, they say, but I have not yet been 
hungry enough to eat it. Meat, which is abundant, is 
rarely properly cooked, and game, of which Sweden has a 
great variety, is injured by being swamped in sauces. He 
must be very fastidious, however, who cannot live passably 
well in Stockholm, especially if he has frequent invitations 
to dine with private families, many of whom have very ex 
?ellent cooks. 

My Swedish friends all said., rf You should see Stockholm 



202 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

in summer ! You have passed the worst part of the whole 
year among us, and you leave just when our fine days begin/ 4 * 
[ needed no assurance, however, of the summer charm of the 
place. In those long, golden evenings, which give place to 
an unfading twilight, when the birch is a network of silver 
and green, and the meadows are sown with the bright wild 
•flowers of the North, those labyrinths of land and water 
must be truly enchanting. But were the glories of the 
Northern Summer increased tenfold, I could not make my 
home where such a price must be paid for them. From the 
time of our arrival, in February, until towards the close of 
April, the weather was of that kind which aggravates one 
to the loss of all patience. We had dull, raw, cloudy skies, 
a penetrating, unnerving, and depressing atmosphere, mud 
under foot, alternating with slushy snow, — in short, every- 
thing that is disagreeable in winter, without its brisk and 
bracing qualities. I found this season much more difficult 
to endure than all the cold of Lapland, and in spite of 
pleasant society and the charms of rest after a fatiguing 
journey, our sojourn in Stockholm was for a time sufficiently 
tedious. 

At first, we lived a rather secluded life in our rooms in 
the Beridarebansgatan, in the northern suburb, devoting our- 
selves principally to gymnastics and the study of the Swed- 
ish language, — both of which can be prosecuted to more ad- 
vantage in Stockholm than anywhere else. For, among the 
distinguished men of Sweden may be reckoned Ling, the 
inventor of what may be termed anatomical gymnastics. 
His system not only aims at reducing to a science the mus- 
cular development of the body, but, by means of both ac- 



LIFE IN STOCKHOLM 203 

tive and passive movements, at reaching the seat of disease 
and stimulating the various organs to healthy action. In 
the former of these objects, Ling has certainly succeeded ; 
there is no other system of muscular training that will bear 
comparison with his ; and if he has to some extent failed 
in the latter, it is because, with the enthusiasm of a man 
possessed by a new discovery, he claimed too much. His 
successor, Prof. Branting, possesses equal enthusiasm, and 
his faith in gymnastics, as a panacea for all human infirmi- 
ties, is most unbounded. The institution under his charge 
is supported by Government, and, in addition to the officers 
of the army and navy, who are obliged to make a complete 
gymnastic course, is largely attended by invalids of all ages 
and classes. 

Neither of us required the system as a medical applica- 
tion. I wished to increase the girth of my chest, some- 
what diminished by a sedentary life, and Braisted needed a 
safety-valve for his surplus strength. However, the profes- 
sor, by dint of much questioning, ascertained that one of us 
was sometimes afflicted with cold feet, and the other with 
head-aches, and thereupon clapped us both upon the sick 
list. On entering the hall, on the first morning of our at- 
tendance, a piece of paper containing the movements pre- 
scribed for our individual cases, was stuck in onr bosoms. 
On inspecting the lists, we found we had ten movements 
apiece, and no two of them alike. What they were we 
could only dimly guess from such cabalistic terms as " $t6d- 
gangst? u Krhalfiigg? " Simhdng," or " Hdgstrgrsiti." 
The hall, about eighty feet in length by thirty in height 
was furnished with the usual apjMances for gymnastic exer 



0(J4 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

cises. Some fifty or sixty patients were present, part ol 
whom were walking up and down the middle passage with 
an air of great solemnity, while the others, gathered in va- 
rious little groups on either side, appeared to^be undergoing 
uncouth forms of torture There was no voluntary exer- 
cise, if I except an old gentleman in a black velvet coat, 
who repeatedly suspended himself by the hands, head down- 
wards, and who died of apoplexy not long afterwards; every 
one was being exercised upon. Here, a lathy young man, 
bent sideways over a spar, was struggling, with a very red 
face, to right himself, while a stout teacher held him down ; 
there, a corpulent gentleman, in the hands of five robust as- 
sistants, was having his body violently revolved upon the 
base of his hip joints, as if they were trying to unscrew him 
from his legs ; and yonder again, an individual, suspended 
by his arms from a cross-bar, had his feet held up and his 
legs stretched apart by another, while a third pounded vig- 
orously with closed fists upon his seat of honour. Now and 
then a prolonged yell, accompanied with all sorts of bur- 
lesque variations, issued from the throats of the assembly 
The object of this was at first not clear to me, but I after- 
wards discovered that the full use of the lungs was consider- 
ed by Ling a very important part of the exercises. Alto- 
gether, it was a peculiar scene, and not without a marked 
grotesque character. 

On exhibiting my matsedcl, or " bill of fare," to the first 
teacher who happened to be disengaged, I received my first 
movement, which consisted in being held with my back 
against a post, while I turned my body from side to side 
against strong resistance, employing the muscles of the chesf 



LIFE IN STOCKHOLM. 205 

only. 1 was then told to walk for five minutes before taking 
the second movement. It is unnecessary to recapitulate the 
various contortions I was made to perform ; suffice it to say, 
that 1 felt very sore after them, which Professor Branting 
considered a promising sign, and that, at the end of a month, 
I was taken off the sick list and put among the friskas, or 
healthy patients, to whom more and severer movements, in 
part active, are allotted. This department was under the 
special charge of Baron Vegesach, an admirable teacher, 
and withal a master of fencing with the bayonet, a branch 
of defensive art which the Swedes have the honour of orig- 
inating. The drill of the young officers in bayonet exer- 
cise was one of the finest things of the kind I ever saw. 1 
prospered so well under the Baron's tuition, that at the end 
of the second month I was able to climb a smooth mast, to 
run up ropes with my hands, and to perform various other 
previous impossibilities, while my chest had increased an 
inch and a half in circumference, the addition being solid 
muscle. 

During the time of my attendance I could not help but 
notice the effect of the discipline upon the other patients, 
especially the children. The weak and listless gradually 
straightened themselves; the pale and salbw took colour 
and lively expression ; the crippled and paralytic recovered 
the use of their limbs ; in short, all, with the exception of 
two or three hypochondriacs, exhibited a very marked im- 
provement. The cheerfulness and geniality which pervaded 
the company, and of which Professor Branting himself was 
the best example, no doubt assisted the cure. All, both 

teachers and pupils, met on a platform of the most absolute 
10 



206 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

equality, and willingly took turns in lending a hand wher- 
ever it was needed. I have had my feet held up by a for- 
eign ambassador, while a pair of Swedish counts applied the 
proper degree of resistance to the muscles of my arms and 
shoulders. The result of my observation and experienc 
was, that Ling's system of physical education is undoubted- 
ly the best in the world, and that, as a remedial agent in all 
cases of congenital weakness or deformity, as well as in 
those diseases which arise from a deranged circulation, its 
value can scarcely be over-estimated. It may even afford 
indirect assistance in more serious organic diseases, but I do 
not believe that it is of much service in those cases where 
chemical agencies are generally employed. Professor Brant- 
ing, however, asserts that it is a specific for all diseases what- 
soever, including consumption, malignant fevers, and vene 
real affections. One thing at least is certain — that in an 
age when physical training is most needed and most neglect- 
ed, this system deserves to be introduced into every, civil- 
ised country, as an indispensable branch in the education 
of youth. 

I found the Swedish language as easy to read as it is dif- 
ficult to speak correctly. The simplicity of its structure, 
which differs but slightly from English, accounts for the 
former quality, while the peculiar use of the definite article 
as a terminal syllable, attached to the noun, is a great im- 
pediment to fluent speaking. The passive form of the verb 
also requires much practice before it becomes familiar, and 
the mode of address in conversation is awkward and incon- 
venient beyond measure. The word you ) or its correspcn' 
dent, is never used, except in speaking to inferiors; wher 



LIFE IN STOCKHOLM 20/ 

ever it occurs in other languages, the title of the person ad- 
dressed must be repeated ; as, for example : " How is the 
Herr Justizrad ? I called at the Herr Justizrad's house this 
morning, but the Herr Justizrud was not at home." Some 
of the more progressive Swedes are endeavouring to do away 
with this absurdity, by substituting the second person plural, 
ni, which is already used in literature, but even they only 
dare to use it in their own private circle. The Swedes, es- 
pecially in Stockholm, speak with a peculiar drawl and sing- 
ing accent, exactly similar to that which is often heard in 
Scotland. It is very inferior to the natural, musical rhythm 
of Spanish, to which, in its vocalisation, Swedish has a 
great resemblance. Except Finnish, which is music itself, 
it is the most melodious of northern languages, and the mel- 
low flow of its poetry is often scarcely surpassed by the 
Italian. The infinitive verb always ends in a, and the lan- 
guage is full of soft, gliding iambics, which give a peculiar 
grace to its poetry. 

It is rather singular that the Swedish prose, in point of 
finish and elegance, is far behind the Swedish poetry. One 
cause of this may be, that it is scarcely more than fifty years 
since the prose writers of the country began to use their 
native language. The works of Linnaeus, Swedenborg, and 
other authors of the past century must now be translated 
into Swedish. Besides, there are two prose dialects — a con- 
versational and a declamatory, the latter being much more 
artificial and involved than the former. All public ad- 
dresses, as well as prose documents of a weighty or serious 
character, must be spoken or written in this pompous and 
antiquated style, owing to which, naturally, the country is 



208 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

almost destitute of orators. But the poets, — especially men 
of the sparkling fancy of Bellman, or the rich lyrical in- 
spiration of Tegner, are not to be fettered by such conven- 
tionalities; and they have given the verse of Sweden an 
*ase, and grace, and elegance, which one vainly seeks in its 
prose. In Stockholm, the French taste, so visible in the 
manners of the people, has also affected the language, and a 
number of French words and forms of expression, which 
have filtered through society, from the higher to the lower 
classes, arc now in general use. The spelling, however, is 
made to conform to Swedish pronunciation, and one is 
amused at finding on placards such words as " trottoar* 
" salong" and "paviljong" 

No country is richer in song-literature than Sweden. The 
popular songs and ballads of the different provinces, wedded 
to airs as original and characteristic as the words, number 
many hundreds. There are few Swedes who cannot sing, 
and I doubt whether any country in Europe would be able 
to furnish so many fine voices. Yet the taste for what is 
foreign and unaccustomed rules, and the minstrels of the 
cafes and the Djurgard are almost without exception Ger- 
man. Latterly, two or three bands of native singers have 
been formed, who give concerts devoted entirely to the coun- 
try melodies of Sweden ; and I believe they have been tol- 
erably successful. 

In these studies, relieved occasionally by rambles ovtrr the 
hills, whenever there was an hour's sunshine, and by occa^ 
rional evenings with Swedish, Fjnglish, and American friends, 
we passed the months of March and April, waiting for the 
tardy spring. Of the shifting and ^picturesque views whicb 



LIFE IN STOCKHOLM 209 

Stockholm presents to the stranger's eye, from whatever 
point he beholds her, we never wearied; but we began at last 
to tire of our ice-olation, and to look forward to the re* 
opening of the Gotha Canal, as a means of escape Day 
after day it was a new satisfaction to behold the majestic 
palace crowning the island-city and looking far and wide 
over the frozen lakes ; the tall, slender spire of the Riddar- 
holm, soaring above the ashes of Charles XII. and Gustavus 
Adblphus, was always a welcome sight; but we had seen 
enough of the hideous statues which ornament the public 
squares, (Charles XII. not among them, and the imbecile 
Charles XIII. occupying the best place); we grew tired of 
the monotonous perambulators on the Forrbro, and the tame- 
ness and sameness of Stockholm life in winter : and therefore 
hailed the lengthening days which heralded our deliverance. 
As to the sights of the capital, are they not described in 
the guide-books ? The champion of the Reformation lies in 
his chapel, under a cloud of his captured banners : opposite 
to him, the magnificent madman of the North, with hun- 
dreds of Polish and Russian ensigns rustling above hk 
headg. In the royal armory you see the sword and the 
bloody shirt of the one, the bullet-pierced hat and cloak of 
the other, still coated with Hiq mud of the trench at 
Fredrickshall. There are robes and weapons of the other 
Carls and Gustavs, but the splendour of 'Swedish history is 
embodied in these two names, and in that of Gustavus Vasa, 
who lies entombed in the old cathedral at Upsala. When 
I had grasped their swords, and the sabre of Ozar Peter 
captured at Narva, I felt that there were no other relics 
in Sweden which could make my heart throb a beat the faster 



210 NORTHERN TRAVEi. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

MANNERS AND MORALS OF STOCKHOLM. 

As a people, the Swedes are very hospitable, and particit* 
larly sc toward foreigners. There is perhaps no country in 
Europe where travellers are treated with so much kindness 
and allowed so many social privileges. This is fortunate, as 
the conventionalities of the country are more rigid than the 
laws of the Medes and Persians. Nothing excites greater 
scandal than an infraction of the numberless little formal- 
ities with which the descendants of the honest, spontaneous, 
impulsive old Scandinavians have, somehow or other, allowed 
themselves to be fettered, and were not all possible allowance 
made for the stranger, he would have but a dismal time of 
it. Notwithstanding these habits have become a second 
nature, they are still a false nature, and give a painfully stiff 
and constrained air to society. The Swedes pride themselves 
on being the politest people in Europe. Voltaire called 
them the " Frenchmen of the North," and they are greatly 
flattered by the epithet. But how much better, to call 
themselves Sivedes ? — to preserve the fine, manly character- 
istics of their ancient stock, rather than imitate a people so 
alien to them in blood, in character, and in antecedents. 



MANNERS AND MORALS OF STOCKHOLM. 211 

Those meaningless social courtesies which sit well enough 
apon the gay, volatile, mercurial Frenchman, seem absurd 
affectations ay hen practiced by the tall, grave, sedate Scan- 
dinavian. The intelligent Swedes feel this, but they are 
powerless to make headway against the influence of a court 
which was wholly French, even before Bernadotte's time, 
"We are a race of apes," said one of them to me bitterly. 
Gustavus III. was thoroughly French in his tastes, but the 
ruin of Swedish nationality in Stockholm was already com- 
menced when he ascended the throne. 

Stockholm manners, at present, are a curious mixture of 
English and French, the latter element, of course, being 
predominant. In costume, the gentlemen are English, with 
exaggeration. Nowhere are to be seen such enormously tall 
and stiff black chimney-pots (misnamed hats), nowhere such 
straight-cut overcoats, descending to the very heels. You 
might stick all the men you see into pasteboard cards, like a 
row of pins, so precisely are they clothed upon the same 
model. But when you meet one of these grim, funereal 
figures, he pulls off his hat with a politeness which is more 
than French; he keeps it off, perhaps, while he is speaking j 
you shake hands and accept his invitation to enter his house. 
After you are within, he greets you a second time with the 
same ceremonies, as if you had then first met ; he says, " Tak 
for sist V (equivalent to ; " thank you for the pleasure oi 
your company the last time we met !") and, after your visit 
13 over, you part with equal formality. At dinner the guests 
stand gravely around the table with clasped hands, before 
sitting down. This is repeated on rising, after which they 
Dow to each other and shake hands with the host and hostess 



212 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

Formerly they used to say " I thank you for the meal,'' a 
custom still retained in Denmark and Norway. Not long 
ago the guests were obliged to make a subsequent visit oi 
ceremony to thank the host for his entertainment, and he 
was obliged to invite them all to a seconc dinner, in conse- 
quence thereof; so that giving one dinner always involved 
giving two. Fortunately the obligation was cancelled by 
the second, or the visits and dinners might have gone on 
alternately, ad infinitum. 

At dinners and evening parties, white gloves and white 
cravats are invariably worn, and generally white vests. The 
same custom is observed at funerals, even the drivers of the 
hearse and carriages being furnished with resplendent white 
gloves for the occasion. I have a horror of white cravats, 
and took advantage of the traveller's privilege to wear a 
black one. I never could understand why, in England, 
where the boundaries of caste are so distinctly marked, a 
gentleman's full dress should be his servant's livery. The 
chimney-pots are no protection to the head in raw or very 
cold weather, and it required no little courage in me to ap- 
pear in fur or felt. " I wish I could wear such a comfortable 
hat," said a Swede to me; u but I dare not] you are a tra- 
veller, and it is permitted; but a Swede would lose his 
position in society, if he were to do so." Another gentleman 
informed me that his own sisters refused to appear in the 
streets with him, because he wore a cap. A former English 
Consul greatly shocked the people by carrying home his own 
marketing. A few gentlemen have independence enough tc 
set aside, in their own houses, some of the more disagreeable 
features of this conventionalism, and the success of two 01 



MANNERS AND MORALS OF STOCKHOLM. 213 

three, who held weekly soirees through the winter, on a more 
free and unrestrained plan, may in the end restore somewhat 
of naturalness and spontaneity to the society of Stockholm. 

The continual taking off of your hat to everybody you 
know, is a great annoyance to many strangers. A lift of 
the hat, as in Germany, is not sufficient. You must remove 
it entirely, and hold it in the air a second or two before you 
replace it. King Oscar once said to an acquaintance of 
mine, who was commiserating him for being obliged to keep 
his hat off, the whole length of the Drottning-gatan, in a 
violent snow-storm : "You are quite right; it was exceed- 
ingly disagreeable, and I could not help wishing that instead 
of being king of Sweden, I were king of Thibet, where, ac- 
cording to Hue, the polite. salutation is simply to stick out 
your tongue." The consideration extended to foreigners is, 
I am told, quite withdrawn after they become residents ; so 
that, as an Englishman informed me, Stockholm is much 
more pleasant the first year than the second. The principle, 
on the whole, is about the same as governs English, and 
most American society, only in Sweden its tyranny is more 
severely felt, on account of the French imitations which 
have been engrafted upon it. 

I do not wish to be understood as saying a word in cen- 
sure of that genial courtesy which is characteristic of the 
Swedes, not less of the bonder, or country farmers, than of 
the nobility. They are by nature a courteous people, and 
if, throughout the country, something of the primness and 
formality of ancient manners has been preserved, it the 
rather serves to give a quaint and picturesque grace to 

society. The affectation of French manners applies pnn« 
10* 



2H NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

cipally to the capital, which, both in manners and morals 
can by no means be taken as a standard for the whole coun* 
try. The Swedes are neither licentious, nor extravagantly 
over-mannered : the Stockholmers are both.. During the 
whole of our journey to Lapland, we were invariably treated 
with a courtesy which bordered on kindness, and had 
abundant opportunities of noticing the general amenity which 
exists in the intercourse even of the poorest classes. The 
only really rude people we saw, were travelling traders, 
especially those from the capital, who thought to add to 
their importance by a little swaggering. 

I recollect hearing of but a single instance in which the 
usual world-wide rules of hospitality were grossly violated. 
This occurred to an English traveller, who spent some time 
in the interior of the country. While taking tea one even- 
ing with a prominent family of the province, he happened 
to make use of his thumb and fore-finger in helping himself 
to a lump of sugar. The mistress of the house immediately 
gent out the servant, who reappeared after a short time with 
another sugar-bowl, filled with fresh lumps. Noticing this, 
the traveller, in order to ascertain whether his harmless 
deviation from Swedish customs had really contaminated 
the whole sugar-bowl, sweetened his second cup in the same 
manner. The result was precisely the same : the servant 
was again sent out, and again returned with a fresh supply 
The traveller, thereupon, coolly walked to the stove, opened 
the door, and threw in his cup, saucer, and tea spoon 
ailecting to take it for granted that they never could be used 
again. 

Speaking of King Oscar reminds me that I should noi 



MANNERS AND MORALS OP STOCKHOLM. 215 

fail to say a word about this liberal and enlightened mon- 
arch. There is probably no king in Europe at present, wh« 
possesses such extensive acquirements, or is animated by a 
more genuine desire for the good of his kingdom. The 
slow progress which Sweden has made in introducing need- 
ful reforms is owino; to the conservative spirit of the nobility 
and the priesthood, who possess half the legislative power. 
I do not believe there is a greater enemy to progress than 
an established church. Oscar is deservedly popular through- 
out Sweden, and I wish I could believe that his successor 
will exhibit equal intelligence and liberality. During my 
stay I saw all the members of the Royal Family frequently, 
and once had an informal self-presentation to the whole of 
them. I was descending the stairway of Kahn's Hotel one 
afternoon, when a tall, black-bearded, Prenchy gentleman 
coming up, brushed so close to me in the narrow passage 
that he received the full benefit of a cloud of smoke which I 
was ejaculating. It was the Crown Prince, as a servant 
whispered to me, but as my cigar was genuine Havana, and 
he is said to be a connoisseur of the article, there was no 
harm done. As I reached the street door a dragoon dashed 
up, preceding the carriages containing the Royal Family, 
who were coming to view Professor Enslen's panoramas. 
First, the Crown Princess, with her children ; she bowed 
gracefully in answer to my greeting. The Princess Euge- 
nia, a lady of twenty-seven, or thereabouts, with a thor- 
oughly cheerful and amiable face, came next and nodded, 
3iniling. With her was the Queen, a daughter- of Eugene 
Bcauharnais, a handsome woman for her years, with the 
-Jark hair and eyes of her grandmother, Josephine. King 



216 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

Oscar followed, at the head of a company of officers ind 
nobles, among whom was his second son, Prince Oscar, the 
handsomest young man in Stockholm. He wore his Admi 
raPs uniform, and made me a naval salute as he passed 
The King is about medium height, with a symmetrical head, 
a bold, finely-cut nose, keen, intelligent eyes, and a heavy 
grey moustache. There was something gallant, dashing, 
and manly in his air, despite his fifty -seven years. He gave 
me the impression of an honest, energetic and thoroughly 
accomplished man; and this is the character he bears 
throughout Sweden, except with a small class, who charge 
him with being insincere, and too much under the influence 
of the Queen, against whom, however, they can find no 
charge, except that of her Catholicism. 

I was sorry to notice, not only in Stockholm, but more 
or less throughout Sweden, a spirit of detraction in regard 
to everything Swedish. Whenever I mentioned with ad- 
miration the name of a distinguished Swede, I was almost 
always sure to hear, in return, some disparaging remark, or 
a story to his disadvantage. Yet, singularly enough, the 
Swedes are rather sensitive to foreign criticism, seeming to 
reserve for themselves the privilege of being censorious. 
No amount of renown, nor even the sanctity which death 
gives to genius, can prevent a certain class of them from 
exhibiting the vices and weaknesses of their countrymen. 
Much the severest things which I heard said about Sweden, 
were said by Swedes themselves, and I was frequently 
obliged to rely upon my own contrary impressions, to pro- 
tect me from the chance of being persuaded to paint thingg 
worse than they really are. 



MANNERS AND MORALS OF STOCKHOLM. 217 

Just before leaving Stockholm I made application, 
through the Hon. Mr. Schroeder, our Minister Resident, 
and Baron Lagerheim, for the privilege of an interview 
with the king. A few days previously, however, he had 
been attacked with that illness which has obliged him to 
withdraw from the labours of government, and was advised 
by his physicians to receive no one. He sent me a very kind 
message, with an invitation to renew my request as soon sb 
his health should be restored. Gentlemen who had oppor 
tunities of knowing the fact, assured me that his health 
broke down under an accumulation of labour and anxiety, 
in his endeavours to bring the question of religious liberty 
before the Diet — a measure in which he had to contend with 
the united influence of the clergy, the House of Peasants, 
whom the clergy rule to a great extent, and a portion of the 
House of Nobles. It is not often that a king is in advance 
of the general sentiment of his people, and in losing the ser- 
vices of Oscar, I fear that Sweden has lost her best man. 
The Crown Prince, now Prince Regent, is said to be amia- 
bly weak in his character, rather reactionary in his views, 
and very ambitious of military glory. At least, that is the 
average of the various opinions which I heard expressed con- 
eerning him. 

After speaking of the manners of Stockholm, I must not 
close this chapter without saying a few words about its mor- 
als. It has been called the most licentious city in Europe, 
and, I have no doubt, with the most perfect justice. Vienna 
may surpass it in the amount of conjugal infidelity, but cer- 
tainly not in general incontinence. Very nearly half the 
registered births are illegitimate, to say nothing of the ille- 



218 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

gitimate children born in wedlock. Of the servant-girls., 
shop-girls, and seamstresses in the city, it is very safe to say 
that scarcely ten out of a hundred are chaste, while, as rakish 
young Swedes have coolly informed me, many girls of respect- 
able parentage, belonging to the middle class, are not much 
better. The men, of course, are much worse than the women 
and even in Paris one sees fewer physical signs of excessive 
debauchery. Here, the number of broken-down young men 
and blear-eyed, hoary sinners, is astonishing. I have nevei 
been in any place where licentiousness was so open and 
avowed—and yet, where the slang of a sham morality was 
so prevalent. There are no houses of prostitution in Stock- 
holm, and the city would be scandalised at the idea of allow- 
ing such a thing. A few years ago two were established 
and the fact was no sooner known than a virtuous mob arose 
and violently pulled them down ! At the restaurants, young 
blades order their dinners of the female waiters, with an arm 
around their waists, while the old men place their hands un- 
blushingly upon their bosoms. All the baths in Stockholm 
are attended by women (generally middle-aged and hideous, 
I must confess), who perform the usual scrubbing and sham- 
pooing with the greatest nonchalance. One does not wonder 
when he is told of young men who have passed safely through 
the ordeals of Berlin and Paris, and have come at last to 
Stockholm to be ruined/ 

* The substance of the foregoing paragraph was contained in a letter 
published in The New- York Tribune during my travels in the North, and 
which was afterwards translated and commented upon by the Swedish 
papers. The latter charged me with having drawn too dark a picture 
inu I therefore took soir e pains tc test my statements, both by means of 



MANNERS AND MORALS OP STOCKHOLM. £ IS 

It is but fair to say that the Swedes account for the large 
proportion of illegitimate births, by stating that many un- 
fortunate females come up from the country to hide their 
shame in the capital, which is no doubt true. Everything tha* 
[ have said has been derived from residents of Stockholm 
who, proud as they are, and sensitive, cannot conceal this 



the Government statistics, and the views of my Swedish friends. I see 
no reason to change my first impression : had I accepted all that was told 
me by natives of the capital, I should have made the picture much darker. 
The question is simply whether there is much difference between the 
general' adoption of illicit connections, or the existence of open prostitu- 
tion. The latter is almost unknown ; the former is almost universal, the 
supply being kept up by the miserable rates of wages paid to female ser- 
vants and seamstresses. The former get, on an average, fifty rigsdaler 
($13) per year, out of which they must clothe themselves : few of the 
latter can make one rigsdaler a day. These connections are also encour 
aged by the fact, that marriage legitimates all the children previously 
born. In fact, during the time of my visit to Stockholm, a measure was 
proposed in the House of Clergy, securing to bastards the same right oi 
inheritance, as to legitimate children. Such measures, however just they 
may be so far as the innocent offspring of a guilty connection are con- 
cerned, have a direct tendency to impair the sanctity of rnarriage, and 
consequently the general standard of morality. 

This, the most vital of all the social problems, is strangely neglected. 
The diseases and excesses which it engenders are far more devastating 
than those which spring from any other vice, and yet no philanthropist 
is bold enough to look the question in tbe face. The virtuous shrink 
from it, the vicious don't care about it, the godly simply condemn, and 
the ungodly indulge — and so the world rolls on, and hundreds of thou 
sands go down annually to utter ruin. It is useless to attempt the ex 
tirpation of a vice which is inherent in the very nature of man, and the 
alternative of either utterly ignoring, or of attempting to check and 
»egulate it, is a question of the most vital importance to the whole hu 
man race. 



220 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

glaring depravity. The population of Stockholm, as it 
proved by statistics, has only been increased during the last 
fifty years by immigration from the country, the number oi 
deaths among the inhabitants exceeding the births by 
several hundreds every year. I was once speaking with a 
Swede about these facts, which he seemed inclined to doubt. 
"But," said I, "they are derived from your own statistics. 51 
" Well," he answered^ with a naive attempt to find some 
compensating good, " you must at least admit that the Swed- 
ish statistics are as exact as any in the world !" 

Drunkenness is a leading vice among the Swedes, as we had 
daily evidence. Six years ago the consumption of brandy 
throughout the kingdom was nine gallons for every man, 
woman, and child annually; but" it has decreased consider- 
ably since then, mainly through the manufacture of beer and 
porter. " Bojarskt bl" (Bavarian beer) is now to be had 
everywhere, and is rapidly becoming the favourite drink of 
the people. Sweden and the United States will in the end 
establish the fact that lager beer is more efficacious in pre- 
venting intemperance than any amount of prohibitory law. 
Brandy -drinking is still, nevertheless, one of the greatest 
curses of Sweden. It is no unusual thing to see boys oi 
twelve or fourteen take their glass of fiery finkel before din- 
ner. The celebrated Swedish punch, made of arrack, wine, 
and sugar, is a universal evening drink, and one of the most 
insidious ever invented, despite its agreeable flavor. There 
is a movement in favor of total abstinence, but it seems to 
have made but little progress, except as it is connected with 
some of the new religious ideas, which are now pieachcd 
throughout the country. 



MANNERS AND MORALS OF STOCKHOLM. 221 

I have rarely witnessed a sadder example of ruin, than one 
evening in a Stockholm cafe. A tall, distinguished-looking 
man of about forty, in an advanced state of drunkenness, was 
seated at a table opposite to us. He looked at me awhile, 
apparently endeavoring to keep hold of some thought with 
which his mind was occupied. Rising at last he staggered 
across the room, stood before me. and repeated the words of 
Bellman : 

" Sa vandra vara stora man' 

Fran ljuset ned til skuggan." * 

t 

A wild, despairing laugh followed the lines, and he turned 
away, but came back again and again to repeat them. He 
was a nobleman of excellent family, a man of great intel- 
lectual attainments, who, a few years ago, was considered one 
of the most promising young men in Sweden. I saw him 
frequently afterwards, and always in the same condition, but 
he never accosted me again. The Swedes say the same 
thing of Bellman himself, and of Tegncr, and many others, 
with how much justice I care not to know, for a man's 
faults are to be accounted for to God, and not to a gossiping 
public. 

* " Thus otu great men wander from the light down into the shades.' 



222 NORTHERN TR.1YFX. 



CHAPTER X; X. 

JOURNEY TO QOTTENBURG AND COPENHAGEN. 

I never knew a more sudden transition from winter to 
summer than we experienced on the journey southward fr3m 
Stockholm. When we left that city on the evening of the* 
6th of May, there were no signs of spring except a few 
early violets and anemones on the sheltered southern banks 
in Haga Park ; the grass was still brown and dead, the trees 
bare, and the air keen ; but the harbour was free from ice 
and the canal open, and our winter isolation was therefore at 
an end. A little circulation entered into the languid veins 
of society; steamers from Germany began to arrive; fresh 
faces appeared in the streets, and less formal costumes — 
merchants and bagmen only, it is true, but people of a more 
dashing and genial air. We were evidently, as the Swedes 
said, leaving Stockholm just as it began to be pleasant and 
lively. 

The steamer left the Riddarholm pier at midnight, ai & 
took her way westward up the Malar Lake to Sodertelje. 
The boats which ply on the Gotha canal are small, but neat 
and comfortable. The price of a passage to Gottenburg, a 
distance of 370 miles, is about $8.50. This, however, does 



JOURNEY TO GOTTENBURG AND COPENHAGEN. 223 

tioc include meals, which are furnished at a fixed price, 
amounting to $6 more. The time occupied by the voyage 
varies from two and a half to four days. In the night we 
passed through the lock at Soderteljc, where St. Olaf, when 
a heathen Viking, cut a channel for his ships into the long 
Baltic estuary which here closely approaches the lake, and in 
the morning found ourselves running down the eastern shore 
of Sweden, under the shelter of its fringe of jagged rocky 
islets. Towards noon we left the Baltic, and steamed up 
the long, narrow Bay of Soderkoping, passing, on the way, 
the magnificent ruins of Stegeborg Castle, the first medise- 
val relic I had seen in Sweden. Its square massive walls, and 
tall round tower of grey stone, differed in no respect from 
those of cotemporary ruins in Germany. 

Before reaching Soderkoping, we entered the canal, a 
very complete and substantial work of the kind, about eighty 
feet in breadth, but much more crooked than would seem to 
be actually necessary. For this reason the boats make but 
moderate speed, averaging not more than six or seven miles 
an hour, exclusive of the detention at the locks. The 
country is undulating, and neither rich nor populous before 
reaching the beautiful Roxen Lake, beyond which we en 
tered upon a charming district. Here the canal rises, by 
eleven successive locks, to the rich uplands separating the 
Roxen from the Wetter, a gently rolling plain, chequered 
bo far as the eye could reach, with green squares of spring 
ing wheat and the dark mould of the newly ploughed bar 
ley fields. While the boat was passing the locks, we walk 
ed forward to a curious old church, called Vreta Klostei , 
The building dates from the year 1128, and contains the 



224: NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

tombs of three Swedish kings, together with that of th* 
Count Douglas, who fled hither from Scotland in the time 
of Cromwell. The Douglas estate is in this neighbour- 
hood, and is, I believe, still in the possession of the family. 
The church must at one time have presented a fine, vener- 
able appearance : but all its dark rich colouring and gilding 
are now buried under a thick coat of white -wash. 

We had already a prophecy of the long summer days of 
the North, in the perpetual twilight which lingered in the 
sky, moving around from sunset to sunrise. During the 
second night we crossed the Wetter Lake, which I did not 
see ; for when I came on deck we were already on the Viken, 
the most beautiful sheet of water between Stockholm and 
Gottenburg. Its irregular shores, covered with forests of fir 
and birch, thrust out long narrow headlands which divide it 
into deep bays, studded with wild wooded islands. But the 
scenery was still that of winter, except in the absence of ice 
and snow. We had not made much southing, but we ex- 
pected to find the western side of Sweden much warmer than 
the eastern. The highest part of the canal, more than 300 
feet above the sea, was now passed, however, and atS we des- 
cended the long barren hills towards the Wener Lake I found 
a few early wild flowers in the woods. In the afternoon we 
came upon the Wener, the third lake in Europe, being one 
hundred miles in extent by about fifty in breadth. To the 
west, it spread away to a level line againsi <*he sky ; but, as 
I looked southward. I perceived two opposite promontories, 
with scattered islands between, dividing the body of water 
into almost equal portions. The scenery of the Wener has 
great resemblance to that of the northern portion of Lake 



JOURNEY TC GOTTEN BURG AND COPENHAGEN. 225 

Michigan. Further down on the eastern shore, the hill oi 
Kinnekulle, the highest land in Southern Sweden, rises to 
the height of nearly a thousand feet above the water, with a 
graceful and very gradual sweep ; but otherwise the scenery 
s rather tame, and, I suspect, depends for most of its beauty 
upon the summer foliage. 

There were two or three intelligent ' and agreeable pas- 
sengers on board, who showed a more than usual knowledge 
of America and her institutions. The captain, however, as 
we walked the deck together, betrayed the same general im- 
pression which prevails throughout the Continent (Germany 
in particular), that we are a thoroughly material people, 
having little taste for or appreciation of anything which is 
not practical and distinctly utilitarian. Nothing can be 
further from the truth ; yet I have the greatest difficulty in 
making people comprehend that a true feeling for science, 
art, and literature can co-exist with our great practical 
genius There is more intellectual activity in the Free 
States than in any other part of the world, a more general 
cultivation, and, taking the collective population, I venture 
to say, a more enlightened taste. Nowhere are greater sums 
spent for books and works of art, or for the promotion of 
scientific objects. Yet this cry of " Materialism" has be- 
come the cant and slang of European talk concerning Amer- 
ica, and is obtruded so frequently and so offensively that 1 
have sometimes been inclined to doubt whether the good 
breeding of Continental society has not been too highly 
rated. 

While on the steamer, I heard an interesting story of a 
Swedish nobleman, who is at present attempting a practical 



226 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

protest against the absurd and fossilised ideas by which his 
class is governed. * The nobility of Sweden are as proud as 
they are poor, and, as the father's title is inherited by each 
of his sons, the country is overrun with Counts and Barons 
who, repudiating any means of support that i3 not somehow 
connected with the service of the government, live in a con- 

(inual state of debt and dilapidation. Count R , how* 

ever, has sense enough to know that honest labor is always 
lonourable, and has brought up his eldest son to earn his 
living by the work of his own hands. For the past three 
years, the latter has been in the United States, working as 
a day-labourer on farms and on Western railroads. His ex- 
periences, I learn, have not been agreeable, but he is a young 
man of too much spirit and courage to give up the attempt, 
and has hitherto refused to listen to the entreaties of his 
family, that he shall come home and take charge of one of 
his father's estates. The second son is now a clerk in a 
mercantile house in Gottenburg, while the Count has given 
his daughter in marriage to a radical and untitled editor, 
whose acquaintance I was afterwards so fortunate as to make, 
and who confirmed the entire truth of the story. 

We were to pass the locks at Trollhatta in the middle of 
the night, but I determined to visit the celebrated falls of 
the Gotha River, even at such a time, and gave orders that 
we should be called. The stupid boy, however, woke up the 
wrong passenger, and the last locks were reached before the 
mistake was discovered. By sunrise we had reached Lilla 
Edet, on the Gotha River, where the buds were swelling on 
the early trees, and the grass, in sunny places, showed a 
little sprouting greenness. We shot rapidly down the swift 



JOURNEY TO GOTTENBURG AND COPENHAGEN. 227 

brown stream, between brown, bald, stony hills, whose forests 
have all been stripped off to feed the hostile camp-fires of 
past centuries. Bits of bottom land, held in the curves of 
the river, looked rich and promising, and where the hilla fell 
back a little, there were groves and country-houses — but th 
scenery, in general, was bleak and unfriendly, until we drew 
near Gottenburg. Two round, detached forts, built accord- 
ing to Vauban's ideas (which the Swedes say he stole from 
Sweden, where they were already in practice) announced our 
approach, and before noon we were alongside the pier. Here, 
to my great surprise, a Custom-house officer appeared and 
asked us to open our trunks. " But we came by the canal 
from Stockholm !" " That makes no difference," he replied; 
" your luggage must be examined." I then appealed to the 
captain, who stated that, in consequence of the steamer's 
being obliged to enter the Baltic waters for two or three 
hours between Sodertelje and Soderkoping, the law took it 
for granted that we might have boarded some foreign vessel 
during that time and procured contraband goods. In other 
words, though sailing in a narrow sound, between the Swed- 
ish islands and the Swedish coast, we had virtually been in 
a foreign country ! It would scarcely be believed that this 
sagacious law is of quite recent enactment. 

We remained until the next morning in Gottenburg* 
This is, in every respect, a more energetic and wide-awake 
place than Stockholm. It has not the same unrivalled 
beauty of position, but is more liberally laid out and kept 
in better order. Although the population is only about 
40,000, its commerce is much greater than that of the capital 
aud so are, proportionately, its wealth and public spirit 



228 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

The Magister Hedlund, a very intelligent and accomplished 
gentleman, to whom I had a letter from Miigge, the novelist 
took me up the valley a distance of five or six miles, to a 
very picturesque village among the hills, which is fast 
growing into a manufacturing town. Large cotton, woollen, 
and paper mills bestride a strong stream, which has such a 
tall that it leaps from one mill- wheel to another for the 
distance of nearly half a mile. On our return, we visited a 
number of wells hollowed in the rocky strata of the hills, to 
which the country people have given the name of " The 
Giant's Pots." A clergyman of the neighbourhood, even, 
has written a pamphlet to prove that they were the work of 
the antediluvian giants, who excavated them for the purpose 
of mixing dough for their loaves of bread and batter for 
their puddings. They are simply those holes which a peb- 
ble grinds in a softer rock, under the rotary action of a cur- 
rent of water, but on an immense scale, some of them being 
ten feet in diameter, by fifteen or eighteen in depth. At 
He*T Hedlund's house, I met a number of gentlemen, whose 
courtesy and intelligence gave me a very favourable impres- 
sion of the society of the place. 

The next morning, at five o'clock, the steamer Viken, 
from Christiania, arrived, and we took passage for Copen- 
hagen. After issuing from the Skargaard, or rocky archi- 
pelago which protects the approach to Gottenburg from the 
sea, we made a direct course to Elsinore, down the Swedish 
coast, but too distant to observe more than its general out- 
line. This part of Sweden, however — the province of 
Halland — is very rough and stony, and not until after 
passing the Sound does one see the fertile hills and vales of 



JOURNEY TO GOTTENBURG AND COPENHAGEN. 229 

Scania. The Cattegat was as smooth as an inland sea, and 
our voyage could not have been pleasanter. In the afternoon 
Zealand rose blue from the wave, and the increase in the 
number of small sailing craft denoted our approach to the 
Sound. The opposite shores drew nearer to each other, and 
finally the spires of Helsingborg, on the Swedish shore, and 
the square mass of Kronborg Castle, under the guns of 
which the Sound dues have been so long demanded, appeared 
in sight. In spite of its bare, wintry aspect, the panorama 
was charming. The picturesque Gothic buttresses and 
gables of Kronborg rose above the zigzag of its turfed out- 
works ; beyond were the houses and gardens of Helsingor 
(Elsinore) — while on the glassy breast of the Sound a fleet 
of merchant vessels lay at anchor, and beyond, the fields and 
to wes of Sweden gleamed in the light of the setting sun. 
Yet here, again, I must find fault with Campbell, splendid 
lyrist as he is. We should have been sailing . 

" By thy wild and stormy steep, 
Elsinore !" 

only that the level shore, w T ith its fair gardens and groves, 

wouldn't admit the possibility of such a thing. The music 

of the line remains the same, but you must not read it on 

the spot. 

There was a beautiful American clipper at anchor off the 

Castle. " There," said a Danish passenger to me, " is one 

of the ships which have taken from us the sovereignty of the 

, Sound." " I am very glad of it," I replied : " and I can only 

♦vonder why the maritime nations of Europe have so long 

submitted to such an imposition." "I am glad, also," said 
11 



230 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

he, * that the question has at last heen settled, and our pri 
vilege given up — and I believe we are all, even the Govern- 
ment itself, entirely satisfied with the arrangement." 1 
heard the same opinion afterwards expressed in Copenhagen 
and felt gratified, as an American, to hear the result attri 
buted to the initiative taken by our Government ; but I also 
remembered the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, 
and could not help wishing that the same principle might be 
applied at home. We have a Denmark, lying between 
New-York and Philadelphia, and I have often paid sana 
dues for crossing her territory. 

At dusk, we landed under the battlements of Copenhagen, 
rt Are you travellers or merchants ?" asked the Custom-house 
officers. "Travellers," we replied. "Then," was the an- 
swer, a there is no necessity for examining your trunks," and 
we were politely ushered out at the opposite door, and drove 
without further hindrance to a hotel. A gentleman from 
Stockholm had said to me : " When you get to Copenhagen 
you will find yourself in Europe :" and 1 was at once struct 
with the truth of his remark. Although Copenhagen is bj 
no means a commercial city — scarcely more so than Stock- 
holm — its streets are gay, brilliant and bustling, and have 
an air of life and joyousness which contrasts strikingly with 
the gravity of the latter capital. From without, it makes 
very little impression, being built on a low, level ground j 
and surrounded by high earthen fortifications, but its inte- 
rior is full of quaint and attractive points. There is already 
a strong admixture of the German element in the population, 
softening by its warmth and frankness the Scandinavian 
reserve. In their fondness for out-door recreation, the Danes 



JOURNEY TO GOTTENBURG AND COPENHAGEN. 231 

quite equal the Viennese, and their Summer-garden ci 
Tivoli is one of the largest and liveliest in all Europe. In 
costume, there is such a thing as individuality ; in manners, 
somewhat of independence. The Danish nature appears to 
be more .pliant and flexible than the Swedish, but I canno 
judge whether the charge of inconstancy and dissimulation, 
which I have heard brought against it, is just. With regard 
to morals, Copenhagen is said to be an improvement upon 
Stockholm. 

During our short stay of three days, we saw the prin- 
cipal sights of the place. The first, and one of the plea- 
santest to me, was the park of Rosenborg Palace, with its 
fresh, green turf, starred with dandelions, and its grand 
avenues of chestnuts and lindens, just starting intc leaf. 
On the 11th of May, we found spring at last, after six 
months of uninterrupted winter. 1 don't much enjoy going 
the round of a new city, attended by a valet-de-place, and 
performing the programme laid down by a guide-book, nor 
is it an agreeable task to describe such things in catalogue 
style ; so I shall merely say that the most interesting things 
in Copenhagen are the Museum of Northern Antiquities, 
the Historical Collections in Rosenborg Palace, Thorwald- 
sen's Museum, and the Church of our Lady, containing the 
great sculptor's statues of Christ and the Apostles. We 
have seen very good casts of the latter in New- York, but 
one must visit the Museum erected by the Danish people, 
which is also Thorwald sen's mausoleum, to learn the num- 
oer, variety and beauty of his works. Here are the casts 
of between three and four hundred statues, busts and bas 



232 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

reliefs, with a number in marble. No artist has ever had sc 
noble a monument. 

On the day after my arrival, I sent a note t) Hans Chris- 
tian Andersen, reminding him of the greeting which he had 
nee sent me through a mutual friend, and asking him to 
appoint an hour for me to call upon him. The same after- 
noon, as I was sitting in my room, the door quietly opened, 
and a tall, loosely-jointed figure entered. He wore a neat 
evening dress of black, with a white cravat ; his head was 
thrown back, and his plain, irregular features wore an ex- 
pression of the greatest cheerfulness and kindly humour. I 
recognised him at once, and forgetting that we had never met 
■ — so much did he seem like an old, familiar acquaintance — > 
cried out " Andersen !" and jumped up to greet him. " Ah,'* 
said he stretching out both his hands, "here you are! Now 
I should have been vexed if you had gone through Copenha- 
gen and I had not known it." He sat down, and I had a 
delightful hour's chat with him. One sees the man so plain- 
ly in his works, that his readers may almost be said to know 
him personally. He is thoroughly simple and natural, and 
those who call him egotistical forget that his egotism is only 
a naive and unthinking sincerity, like that of a child. In 
fact, he is the youngest man for his years that I ever knew. 
" When I was sixteen," said he, " I used to think to myself, 
' when I am twenty-four, then will 1 be old indeed' — but now 
I am fifty-two, and I have just the same feeling of youth as 
at twenty." He was greatly delighted when Braisted, who 
was in the room with me, spoke of having read his " Impro- 
visatore" in the Sandwich Islands. " Why, is it possible V 



JOURNEY TO GOTTENBURG AND COPENHAGEN 233 

he exclaimed: "when I hear of my bocks going so fax 
around the earth, I sometimes wonder if it can be really true 
that I have written them." He explained to me the plot of 
his new novel, " To Be, or Not To Be," and ended by pre- 
senting me with the illustrated edition of his stories. " Now 
don't forget me,' 5 said he, with a delightful entreaty in hi* 
voice, as he rose to leave, " for we shall meet again. Were 
it not for sea-sickness, I should see you in America ; and 
who knows but I may come, in spite of it ?" God bless 
you, Andersen! lsaid, in my thoughts. It is so cheering 
to meet a man whose very weaknesses are made attractive 
through the perfect candour of his nature! 

Goldschmidt, the author of " The Jew," whose acquaint- 
ance I made, is himself a Jew, and a man of great earnest- 
ness and enthusiasm. He is the editor of the " North and 
South," a monthly periodical, and had just completed, as he 
informed me, a second romance, which was soon to be pub- 
lished. Like most of the authors and editors in Northern 
Europe, he is well acquainted with American literature. 

Professor Rafn, the distinguished archaeologist of North- 
ern lore, is still as active as ever, notwithstanding he is well 
advanced in years. After going up an innumerable number 
of steps, I found him at the very top of a high old tuilding 
in the Kronprinzensgade, in a study crammed with old 
Norsk and Icelandic volumes. He is a slender old man, with 
a thin face, and high, narrow head, clear grey eyes, and a 
hale red on his cheeks. The dust of antiquity does not lie 
very heavily on his grey : locks; his enthusiasm for his stud- 
ies is of that fresh and lively character which mellows the 



234 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

whole nature of the man. I admired and enjoyed it, when, 
after being fairly started on his favourite topic, he opened 
one of his own splendid folios, and read me some ringing 
stanzas of Icelandic poetry. He spoke much of Mr. Marsh, 
our former minister to Turkey, whose proficiency in the 
aorthern languages he considered very remarkable. 



RETURN TO THE NORTH.— CHRISTIANIA 235 



CHAPTER XX. 

RETURN TO THE NORTH. CHRISTIANIA. 

I was obliged to visit both Germany and England, be- 
fore returning to spend the summer in Norway. As neither 
of those countries comes within the scope of the present work, 
I shall spare the reader a recapitulation of my travels for 
6ix weeks after leaving Copenhagen. Midsummer's Day 
was ten days past before I was ready to resume the journey 
and there was no time to be lost, if I wished to see the mid 
night sun from the cliffs of the North Cape. I therefore 
took the most direct route from London, by the way of 
Hull, whence a steamer was to sail on the 3rd of July for 
Christiania. 

We chose one of the steamers of the English line, to our 
subsequent regret, as the Norwegian vessels are preferable, 
In most respects. I went on board on Friday evening, and 
on asking for my berth, was taken into a small state-room 
containing ten> " Oh, there's only seven gentleman goin' in 
here, this time," said the steward, noticing my look of dis- 
may, " and then you can sleep on a sofa in the saloon, if 
yon like it better." On referring to the steamer's framed 
^rtificate, I found that she was 250 tons' burden, and coiv 



236 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

structed to carry 171 cabin and 230 deck passengers ! The 
state-room for ten passengers had a single wash-basin, but 1 
believe we had as many as four small towels, which was a 
source of congratulation. " What a.jolly nice boat it is ! JT 
I heard one of the English passengers exclaim. The stew 
ard, who stood up for the dignity of the vessel, said : ' ,( Oh, 
you'll find it very pleasant; we ? ave only twenty passengers 
and we once 'ad heigh ty-four." 

In the morning we were upon the North Sea, rolling 
with a short, nauseating motion, under a dismal, rainy sky. 
" It always rains when you leave Hull, 75 said the mate, " and 
it always rains when you come back to it." I divided my 
time between sea sickness and Charles Reade's novel of 
" Never too Late to Mend," a cheery companion under such 
circumstances. The purposed rowdyism of the man's style 
shows a little too plainly, but his language is so racy and 
muscular, his characters so fairly and sharply drawn, that 
one must not be censorious. Towards evening I remem- 
bered that it was the Fourth, and so procured a specific for 
sea-sickness, with which Braisted "and 1, sitting alone on the 
main hatch, in the rain, privately remembered our Father- 
land. There was on board an American sea-captain, of Nor- 
wegian birth, as I afterwards found, who would gladly have 
joined us. The other passengers were three Norwegians, 
three fossil Englishmen, two snobbish do., and some jolly, 
good-natured, free-and-easy youths, bound to Norway, with 
logs, guns, rods, fishing tackle, and oil-cloth overalls. 

We had a fair wind and smooth sea, but the most favour- 
able circumstances could not get more than eight knots a,c 
hour out of our steamer. After forty-eight hours, however 



RETURN TO THE NORTH.— CHRISTIAN! A. 23? 

the coast of Norway came in sight — a fringe of scattered 
rocks, behind which rose bleak hills, enveloped in mist and 
rain. Our captain, who had been running on this route 
some years, did not know where we were, and was for put- 
ting to sea again, but one of the Norwegian passengers of- 
fered his services as pilot and soon brought us to the fjord 
of Christiansand. We first passed through a Skdrgaard — 
archipelago, or "garden of rocks," as it is picturesquely 
termed in Norsk — and then oetween hills of dark-red rock 
covered by a sprinkling of fir-trees, to a sheltered and tran- 
quil harbour, upon which lay the little town. By this time 
the rain came down, not in drops, but in separate threads or 
streams, as if the nozzle of an immense watering-pot had been 
held over us. After three months of drouth, which had 
burned up the soil and entirely ruined the hay-crops, it was 
now raining for the first time in Southern Norway. The 
young Englishmen bravely put on their water-proofs and 
set out to visit the town in the midst of the deluge; but as 
it contains no sight of special interest, I made up my mind 
that, like Constantinople, it was more attractive from with- 
out than within, and iemained on hoard. An amphitheatre 
of rugged hills surrounds the place, broken only by a charm- 
ing little valley, which stretches off to the westward. 

The fishermen brought us some fresh mackerel for our 
breakfast. They are not more than half the size of our?, 
and of a brighter green along the back ; their flavour, how 
e?er is delicious. With these mackerels, four salmons, 
custom-house officer, and a Norwegian parson, we set off at 
noon for Christiania. The coast was visible, but at a con- 
siderable distance, all day. Fleeting gleams of sunshii* 
11* 



238 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

sometimes showed the broken inland ranges of mountains 
with jagged saw-tooth peaks shooting up here and there, 
When night came there was no darkness, but a strong golden 
gleam, whereby one could read until after ten o'clock. We 
reached the mouth of Christiania Fjord a little after mid* 
night, and most of the passengers arose to view the scenery. 
After passing the branch which leads to Drammen, the fjord 
contracts so as to resemble a river or one of our island-stud- 
ded New England lakes The alternation of bare rocky 
islets, red-ribbed cliffs, fir-woods, grey-green birchen groves, 
tracts of farm land, and red-frame cottages, rendered this 
part of the voyage delightful, although, as the morning ad- 
vanced, we saw everything through a gauzy veil of rain, 
Finally, the watering-pot was turned on again, obliging even 
oilcloths to beat a retreat to the cabin, and so continued 

until we-reached Christiania. 

i 

After a mild custom-house visitation, not a word being 
said about passports, we stepped ashore in republican Norway, 
and were piloted by a fellow-passenger to the Victoria Hotel, 
where an old friend awaited me. He who had walked with 
me in the colonnades of Karnak, among the sands of Kom- 
Ombos, and under the palms of Philse, was there to resume 
our old companiunship on the bleak fjelds of Norway and on 
the shores of the Arctic Sea. We at once set about prepar- 
ing for the journey. First, to the banker's who supplied me 
with a sufficient quantity, of small money for the post-sta 
tions on the road to Drontheim ; then to a seller of carrioles 
of whom we procured three, at $36 apiece, to be resold tc 
him for $24, at the expiration of two months ; and then tc , 
supply ourselves with maps, posting-bock, hammer, nail? 



RETURN TO THE NORTH.— CHRISTIAN! *. 239 

rope, gimlets, and other necessary helps in case of a break- 
down. The carriole (carry-all, luctis a non lucendn, be- 
cause it only carries one) is the national Norwegian vehicle, 
and deserves special mention. It resembles a reindeer-pulk, 
mounted on a pair of wheels, with long, flat, flexible ash 
shafts, and no springs. The seat, much like the stern of a 
canoe, and rather narrow for a traveller of large basis, slopes 
down into a trough for the feet, with a dashboard in front. 
Youi single valise is strapped on a flat board behind, upon 
which your postillion sits. The whole machine resemble? 
an American sulky in appearance, except that it is spring- 
less, and nearly the whole weight is forward of the axle. 
We also purchased simple and strong harness, which easily 
accommodates itself to any horse. 

Christiania furnishes a remarkable example of the pro- 
gress which Norway has made since its union with Sweden 
and the adoption of a free Constitution. In its signs of 
growth and improvement, the city reminds one of an Amer- 
ican town. Its population has risen to 40,000, and though 
inferior to Gottenburg in its commerce, it is only surpassed 
by Stockholm in size. The old log houses of which it once 
was built have almost entirely disappeared ; the streets are 
broad, tolerably paved, and have — what Stockholm cannot 
yet boast of — decent side-walks. From the little nucleus o 
the old town, near the water, branch off handsome new streets, 
;vhere you often come suddenly from stately three-story 
blocks upon the rough rock and meadow land. The broad 
Carl-Johansgade, leading directly to the imposing white 
front of the Royal Palace, upon an eminence in the rear ol 
fhe city, is worthy of any European capital. On the uld 



340 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

market square a very handsome market hall of brick, iD 
semi-Byzantine style, has recently been erected, and the 
only apparent point in which Christiania has not kept up 
with the times, is the want of piers for her shipping. A 
railroad, about forty miles in length, is already in operation 
as far as Eidsvold, at the foot of the long Miosen Lake, on 
which steamers ply to Lillehammer, at its head, affording 
an outlet for the produce of the fertile Guldbrandsdal and 
the adjacent country. The Norwegian Constitution is in 
almost all respects as free as that of any American state, and 
it is cheering to see what material well-being and solid pro- 
gress have followed its adoption. 

The environs of Christiania are remarkably beautiful. 
From the quiet basin of the fjord, which vanishes between 
blue, interlocking islands to the southward, the land rises 
gradually on all sides, speckled with smiling country-seats 
and farm-houses, which trench less and le3s on the dark 
evergreen forests as they recede, until the latter keep their 
old dominion and sweep in unbroken lines to the summits 
of the mountains on either hand. The ancient citadel of 
Aggershus, perched upon a rock, commands the approach to 
the city, fine old linden trees rising above its white walls 
and tiled roofs; beyond, over the trees of the palace park, 
in which stand the new Museum and University, towers the 
long palace-front, behind which commences a range of villa3 
and gardens, stretching westward around a deep bight of th 
fjord, until they reach the new palace of Oscar-hall, on 
peninsula facing the city. As we floated over the glassy 
water, in a skiff, on the afternoon following our arrival, 
watching the scattered sun-gleams move across the lovelj 



RETURN TO THE NORTH. — CHRISTIANIA. 241 

panorama, we found it difficult to believe that we were in 
the latitude of Greenland. The dark, rich green of the fo- 
liage > the balmy odours which filled the air, the deep blue 
of the distant hills and islands, and the soft, warm colors 
of the houses, all belonged to the south. Only the air, fresh 
without being cold, elastic, and exciting, not a delicious 
opiate, was wholly northern, and when I took a swim under 
the castle walls, I found that the water was northern too. It 
was the height of summer, and the showers of roses in 
the gardens, the strawberries and cherries in the market, 
show that the summer's best gifts are still enjoyed here. 

The English were off the next day with their dogs, guns, 
fishing tackle, waterproofs, clay pipes, and native language, 
except one, who became home-sick and went back in the 
next steamer. We also prepared to set out for Ringerike, 
the ancient dominion of King Ring, on our way to the 
Dovre-fjeld and Drontheim. 



242 NORTHERN TRAVEL 



CHAPTER XXI. 

INCIDENTS OF CARRIOLE TRAVEL. 

It is rather singular that whenever you are about to start 
wpon a new journey, you almost always fall in with some 
one who has just made it, and who overwhelms you with all 
sorts of warning and advice. This has happened to me so 
frequently that I have long ago ceased to regard any such 
communications, unless the individual from whom they come 
inspires me with more than usual confidence. While in- 
specting our carrioles at the hotel in Christiania, I was ac- 
costed by a Hamburg merchant, who had just arrived from 
Drontheim, by way of the Dovre Fjeld and the Miosen 
Lake. " Ah," said he, " those things won't last long. That 
oil-cloth covering for your luggage will be torn to pieces in 
a few days by the postillions climbing upon it. Then they 
hold on to your seat and rip the cloth lining with their long 
nails; besides, the rope reins wear the leather off your dash 
board, and you will be lucky if your wheels and axles don't 
snap on the rough roads." Now, here was a man who had 
travelled much in Norway, spoke the language perfectly, and 
might be supposed to know something; but his face betray 
ed the croaker, and T knew, moreover, that of all fretfullj 



INCIDENTS OP CARRIOLE TRAVEL 243 

luxurious men, merchants — and especially North-German 
merchants — are the worst, so I let him talk and kept my 
own private opinion unchanged. 

At dinner he renewed the warnings* " You will have 
great delay in getting horses at the stations. The only way 
is to be rough and swaggering, and threaten the people — 
and even that won't always answer." Most likely, I thought. 
— " Of course you have a supply of provisions with you?' 5 
he continued. " No," said I, " I always adopt the diet of the 
country in which I travel." — " But you can't do it here !' 
he exclaimed in horror, " you can't do it here ! They have 
no wine, nor no white bread, nor no fresh meat ; and they 
don't know how to cook anything !" " I am perfectly aware 
of that," I answered; "but as long as I am not obliged to 
come down to bread made of fir-bark and barley-straw, as 
last winter in Lapland, I shall not complain." — "You pos- 
sess the courage of a hero if you can do such a thing ; but 
you will not start now, in this rain ?" We answered by 
bidding him a polite adieu, for the post-horses had come, 
and our carrioles were at the door. As if to reward our 
resolution, the rain, which had been falling heavily all the 
morning, ceased at that moment, and the grey blanket 
of heaven broke and rolled up into loose masses of cloud. 

I mounted into the canoe-shaped seat, drew the leathern 
apron over my legs, and we set out, in single file, through 
the streets of Christiania. The carriole, as I have already 
said, has usually no springs (ours had none at least), except 
those which it makes in bounding over the stones. We had 
not gone a hundred yards before I was ready to cry out — 
"Lord, have mercy upon me !" Such a shattering of the 



^44 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

joints, such a vibration of the vertebrae, such a churning of 
the viscera, I had not felt since travelling by banghy-cart in 
India. Breathing went on by fits and starts, between the 
jolts; my teeth struck together so that I put away my pipe, 
lest 1 should bite off the stem, and the pleasant sensation of 
having been pounded in every limb crept on apace. Once 
off the paving-stones, it was a little better ; beyond the hard 
turnpike which followed, better still ; and on the gravel and 
sand of the first broad hill, we found the travel easy enough 
to allay our fears. The two skydsbonder, or postillions, 
who accompanied us, sat upon our portmanteaus, and were 
continually jumping off to lighten the ascent of the hills. 
The descents were achieved at full trotting speed, the horses 
leaning back, supporting themselves against the weight ot 
the carrioles, and throwing out their feet very firmly, so as 
to avoid the danger of slipping. Thus, no matter how steep 
the hill, they took it with perfect assurance and boldness* 
never making a stumble. There was just sufficient risk left, 
however, to make these flying descents pleasant and exhilar- 
ating. 

Our road led westward, over high hills and across deep 
valleys, down which we had occasional glimpses of the blue 
fjord and its rocky islands. The grass and grain were a 
rich, dark green, sweeping into a velvety blue in the dis- 
tance, and against this deep ground, the bright red of the 
houses showed with strong effect — a contrast which wassul> 
hied and harmonised by the still darker masses of the ever* 
i>*reen forests, covering the mountain ranges. At the end of 
twelve or thirteen miles we reached the first post-station, at 
the foot of the mountains which bound the inland prospect 



fNCIDENTS OF CARRIOLE TRA^ EL 245 

from Christiania on the west. As it was not a "fast sta. 
tion, we were subject to the possibility of waiting two 01 
three hours for horses, but fortunately were accosted on the 
road by one of the farmers who supply the skyds, and 
changed at his house. The Norwegian skyds differs from 
the Swedish skjuts in having horses ready only at the fast 
stations, which are comparatively few, while at all others 
you must wait from one to three hours, according to the dis- 
tance from which the horses must be brought. In Sweden 
there are always from two to four horses ready, and you are 
only obliged to wait after these are exhausted. There, also, 
the regulations are better, and likewise more strictly en- 
forced. It is, at best, an awkward mode of travelling — 
very pleasant, when everything goes rightly, but very an- 
noying when otherwise. 

We now commenced climbing the mountain by a series of 
terribly steep ascents, every opening in the woods disclosing 
a wider and grander view backward over the lovely Chris- 
tiania Fjord and the intermediate valleys. Beyond the 
crest we came upon a wild mountain plateau, a thousand 
feet above the sea, and entirely covered with forests of spruce 
and fir. It was a black and dismal region, under the low- 
ering sky: not a house or a grain field to be seen, and thus 
tfe drove for more than two hours, to the solitary inn of 
Krogkleven, where we stopped for the night in order to visit 
(he celebrated King's View in the morning. We got a tol- 
erable supper and good beds, sent off a messenger to the 
station of Sundvolden, at the foot of the mountain, to order 
horses for us, and set out soon after sunrise, piloted by the 
landlord's son, Olaf. Half an hour's walk through the for* 



246 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

est brought us to a pile of rocks on the crest ol the moun* 
tain, which fell away abruptly to the westward. At our 
feet lay the Tyri Fjord, with its deeply indented shores and 
its irregular, scattered islands, shining blue and bright in 
the morning sun, while away beyond it stretched a grea 
semicircle of rolling hills covered with green farms, dotted 
with red farm-houses, and here and there a white church 
glimmering like a spangle on the breast of the landscape. 
Behind this soft, warm, beautiful region, rose dark, wooded 
hills, with lofty mountain-ridges above them, until, far and 
faint, under and among the clouds, streaks of snow betrayed 
some peaks of the Nore Fjeld, sixty or seventy miles dis- 
tant. This is one of the most famous views in Norway, 
and has been compared to that from the Righi, but without 
sufficient reason. The sudden change, however, from the 
gloomy wilderness through which you first pass to the sunlit 
picture of the enchanting lake, and green, inhabited hills and 
valleys, may well excuse the raptures of travellers. Ringer- 
ike, the realm of King Ring, is a lovely land, not only as 
seen from this eagle's nest, but when you have descended 
upon its level. I believe the monarch's real name was 
Halfdan the Black. So beloved was he in life that after 
death his body was divided into four portions, so that each 
province might possess some part of him. Yet the noblest 
fame is transitory, and nobody now knows exactly where 
any one of his quarters was buried. 

A terrible descent, through a chasm between perpendicular 
sliffs some hundreds of feet in height, leads from Krogkleven 
to the level of the Tyri Fjord. There is no attempt here, 
nor indeed upon the most of the Norwegian roads we trav 



INCIDENTS OF CARRIOLE TRAVEL. 2i? 

eliedj to mitigate, by well-arranged curves, the steepness of 
the hills. Straight down you go, no matter of how break- 
neck a character the declivity may be. There are no drags 
to the carrioles and country carts, and were not the native 
horses the toughest and surest-footed little animals in th 
world, this sort of travel would be trying to the nerves. 

Our ride along the banks of the Tyri Fjord, in the clear 
morning sunshine, was charming. The scenery was strik- 
ingly like that on the lake of Zug, in Switzerland, and we 
missed the only green turf, which this year's rainless spring 
had left brown and withered. In all Sweden we had seen 
no such landscapes, not even in Norrland. There, however, 
the people carried off the palm. We found no farm-houses 
here so stately and clean as the Swedish, no such symmet- 
rical forms and frank, friendly faces. The Norwegians are 
big enough, and strong enough, to be sure, but their car- 
riage is awkward, and their faces not only plain but ugly. 
The countrywomen we saw were remarkable in this latter 
respect, but nothing could exceed their development of waist, 
bosom and arms. Here is the stuff of which Vikings were 
made, I thought, but there has been no refining or ennobling 
since those times. These are the rough primitive formations 
of the human race — the bare granite and gneiss, from which 
sprouts no luxuriant foliage, but at best a few simple and 
hardy flowers. I found much less difficulty in communicaV 
ing with the Norwegians than 1 anticipated. The language 
is so similar to the Swedish that I used the latter, with a 
few alterations, and easily made myself understood. The 
Norwegian dialect, I imagine, stands in about the same re 
lation to pure Danish as the Scotch does to the English 



£18 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

To my ear, it is less musical and sonorous than the Swedish 
though it is often accented in the same peculiar sing-song 
way. 

Leaving the Tyri Fjord, we entered a rolling, well-culti* 
vated country, with some pleasant meadow scenery. Ths 
srops did not appear to be thriving remarkably, probably 
on account of the dry weather. The hay crop, which the 
farmers were just cutting, was very scanty ; rye and winter 
barley were coming into head, but the ears were thin and 
light, while spring barley and oats were not more than six 
inches in height. There were many fields of potatoes, how- 
ever, which gave a better promise. So far as one could 
judge from looking over the fields, Norwegian husbandry is 
yet in a very imperfect state, and I suspect that the resour- 
ces of the soil are not half developed. The whole country 
was radient with flowers, and some fields were literally 
mosaics of blue, purple, pink, yellow, and crimson bloom. 
Clumps of wild roses fringed the road, and the air was de- 
licious with a thousand odours. Nature was throbbing 
with the fullness of her short midsummer life, with that 
sudden and splendid rebound from the long trance of winter 
which she nowhere makes except in the extreme north. 

At Klakken, which is called a lilsigelse station, where 
horses must be specially engaged, we were obliged to wait 
two hours and a half, while they were sent for from a dis- 
tance of four miles. The utter coolness and indifference of 
the people to our desire to get on faster was quite natural, 
and all the better for them, no doubt, but it was provoking 
to us. We whiled away a part of the time with breakfast, 
which was composed mainly of boiled eggs and an immense 



INCIDENTS OF CARRIOLE TRAVEL. 249 

dish of wild strawberries, of very small size but exquisitely 
fragrant flavour. The next station brought as to Vas- 
bunden, at the head of the beautiful Randsfjord, which was 
luckily a fast station, and the fresh horses were forthcoming 
n two minutes. Our road all the afternoon lay along the 
eastern bank of the Fjord, coursing up and down the hills 
through a succession of the loveliest landscape pictures. 
This part of Norway will bear a comparison with the softer 
parts of Switzerland, such as the lakes of Zurich and Thun. 
The hilly shores of the Fjord were covered with scattered 
farms, the villages being merely churches with half a dozen 
houses clustered about them. 

At sunset we left the lake and climbed a long wooded 
mountain to a height of more than two thousand feet. It 
was a weary pull until we reached the summit, but we rolled 
swiftly down the other side to the inn of Teterud, our des- 
tination, which we reached about 10 p.m. It was quite light 
enough to read, yet every one was in bed, and the place 
seemed deserted, until we remembered what latitude we were 
in. Finally, the landlord appeared, followed by a girl, whom, 
on account of her size and blubber, Braisted compared to a 
cow- whale. She had been turned out of her bed to make 
room for us, and we two instantly rolled into the warm 
hollow she had left, my Nilotic friend occupying a separate 
bed in another corner. The guests' room was an immense 
apartment ; eight sets of quadrilles might have been danced 
in it at one time. The walls were hung with extraordinary 
pictures of the Six Days of Creation, in which the Almighty 
was represented as an old man dressed in a long gown, with 
a peculiarly good-humoured leerv suggesting a wink, on hia 



250 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

face. I have frequently seen the same series of pictures in 
the Swedish inns. In the morning I was aroused by Brai- 
sted exclaiming, " There she blows !" and the whale came up 
to the surface with a huge pot of coffee, some sugar candy, 
excellent cream, and musty biscuit. 

It was raining when we started, and I put on a light coat, 
purchased in London, and recommended in the advertisement 
as being " light in texture, gentlemanly in appearance, and 
impervious to wet," with strong doubts of its power to resist 
a Norwegian rain. Fortunately, it was not put to a severe 
test; we had passing showers only, heavy, though short. 
The country, between the Randsfjord and the Miosen Lake 
was open and rolling, everywhere under cultivation, and ap- 
parently rich and prosperous. Our road was admirable, and 
we rolled along at the rate of one Norsk mile (seven miles) 
an hour, through a land in full blossom, and an atmosphere 
of vernal odors. At the end of the second station we struck 
the main road from Christiania to Drontheim. In the sta- 
tion-house I found translations of the works of Dickens and 
Captain Chamier on the table. The landlord was the most 
polite and attentive Norwegian we had seen ; but he made us 
pay for it, charging one. and a half marks apiece for a break- 
fast of boiled eggs and cheese. 

Starting again in a heavy shower, we crossed the crest of 
a hill, and saw all at once the splendid Miosen Lake spread 
out before us, the lofty Island of Helge, covered with farms 
and forests, lying in the centre of the picture. Our road 
went northward along the side of the vast, sweeping slope of 
farm-land which bounds the lake on the west. Its rough 
and muddy condition showed how little land-travel there iz 



INCIDENTS OF CARRIOLE TRAVEL. 251 

at present, since the establishment of a daily line of steamers 
on the lake. At the station of Gjovik, a glass furnace, 
situated in a wooded little dell on the shore, I found a young 
Norwegian who spoke tolerable English, and who seemed 
astounded at our not taking the steamer in preference to out 
carrioles. He hardly thought it possible that we could be 
going all the way to Lillehammer, at the head of the lake, 
by the land road. When we set out, our postillion took a 
way leading up the hills in the rear of the place. Knowing 
that our course was along the shore, we asked him if we 
were on the road to Sveen, the next station. " Oh, yes ; it's 
all right," said he, " this is a new road." It was, in truth, a 
superb highway ; broad and perfectly macadamised, and 
leading along the brink of a deep rocky chasm, down which 
thundered a powerful stream. From the top of this glen we 
struck inland, keeping more and more to the westward. 
Again we asked the postillion, and again received the same 
answer. Finally, when we had travelled six or seven miles, 
and the lake had wholly disappeared, I stopped and de- 
manded where Sveen was. " Sveen is not on this road, ,; he 
answered ; " we are going to Mustad !" " But," I exclaimed, 
' we are bound for Sveen and Lillehammer !" " Oh," said 
ho, with infuriating coolness, " yon can go there after* 
wards /" You may judge that the carrioles were whirled 
around in a hurry, and that the only answer to the fellow's 
remonstrances was a shaking by the neck which frightened 
him into silence. 

We drove back to Gjovik in a drenching shower, which 
failed to cool our anger. On reaching the station I at once 
made a complaint against the postillion, and the landlord 



252 NORTHERN TRAVET, 

called a man who spoke good English, to settle the matter 
The latter brought me a bill of $2 for going to Mustad and 
back. Knowing that the horses belonged to farmers, whc 
were not to blame in the least, we had agreed to pay for 
their use; bat I remonstrated against paying the full price 
when we had not gone the whole distance, and had not in 
tended to go at all. " Why, then, did you order horses foi 
Mustad ?" he asked. " I did no such thing !'' I exclaimed, 
in amazement. " You did !" he persisted, and an investiga- 
tion ensued, which resulted in the discovery that the Nor- 
wegian who had advised us to go by steamer, had gratui- 
tously taken upon himself to tell the landlord to send us 
to the Randsfjord, and had given the postillion similar 
directions ! The latter, imagining, perhaps, that we didn't 
actually know our own plans, had followed his instructions. 
[ must say that I never before received such an astonishing 
mark of kindness. The ill-concealed satisfaction of the 
people at our mishap made it all the more exasperating. 
The end of it was that two or three marks were taken ofl 
the account, 7-hich we then paid, and in an hour afterwards 
shipped ouuelves and carrioles on board a steamer for 
Lillehamruer. The Norwegian who had caused all this 
trouble c&me along just before we embarked, and heard the 
story with the most sublime indifference, proffering not a 
word of apology, regret, or explanation. Judging from this 
specimen, the King of Sweden and Norway has good reason 
to style himself King of the Goths and Vandals. 

I was glad, nevertheless, that we had an opportunity oi 
seeing the Miosen, from the deck of a steamer. Moving 
over the £*assy pale-green water, midway between its shores 



INCIDENTS OF CARRIOLE TRAVEL. 253 

we had a far better exhibition of its beauties than from the 
land-road. It is a superb piece of water, sixty miles in 
length by from two to five in breadth, with mountain shores 
of picturesque and ever-varying outline. The lower slopes*, 
re farm land, dotted with the large guards, or mansions 
of the farmers, many of which have a truly stately air ; be- 
yond them are forests of fir, spruce, and larch, while in the 
glens between, winding groves of birch, alder, and ash come 
down to fringe the banks of the lake. Wandering gleams 
of sunshine, falling through the broken clouds, touched here 
and there the shadowed slopes and threw belts of light upon 
the water — and these illuminated spots finely relieved the 
otherwise sombre depth of colour. Our boat was slow, and 
we had between two and three hours of unsurpassed scenery 
before reaching our destination. An immense raft of timber, 
gathered from the loose' logs which are floated down the 
Lougen Elv, lay at the head of the lake, which contracts 
into the famous Guldbrandsdal. On the brow of a steep 
hill on the right lay the little town of Lillehammer, wherfi 
we were ere long quartered in a very comfortable hotel. 
12 



264 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

GUIDBRANDSDAL AND THE DOVRE FIELD. 

We left Lillehammer on a heavenly Sabbath morning. 
There was scarcely a cloud in the sky, the air was warm 
and balmy, and the verdure of the valley, freshened by the 
previous day's rain, sparkled and glittered in the sun. The 
Miosen Lake lay blue and still to the south, and the bald 
tops of th^mountains which inclose Guldbrandsdal stood 
sharp and clear, and almost shadowless, in the flood of light 
which streamed up the valley. Of Lillehammer, I can only 
say that it is a common-place town of about a thousand in- 
habitants. It had a cathedral and bishop some six hundred 
years ago, no traces of either of which now remain. We 
drove out of it upon a splendid new road, leading up the 
eastern bank of the river, and just high enough on the 
mountain side to give the loveliest views either way. Our 
horses were fast and spirited, and the motion of our carrioles 
over the firmly macadamised road was just sufficient to keep 
the blood in nimble circulation. Rigid Sabbatarians may 
be shocked at our travelling on that day ; but there were 
few hearts in all the churches of Christendom whose hymns 
of praise were more sincere and devout than ours. Thf 



GULDBRANDSDAL AND THE DOVRE FJELD 255 

Lougfcn roared an anthem for us from his rocky Ded; the 
mountain streams, flashing down their hollow channels, 
seemed hastening to join it; the mountains themselves 
Btood silent, with uncovered heads ; and over all the pale- 
blue northern heaven looked lovingly and gladly down— 
a smile of God upon the grateful earth. There is no Sab- 
bath worship better than the simple enjoyment of such a 
day. 

Toward the close of the stage, our road descended to the 
banks of the Lougen, which here falls in a violent rapid — 
almost a cataract — over a barrier of rocks. Masses of wa- 
ter, broken or wrenched from the body of the river, are 
hurled intermittently high into the air, scattering as they 
fall, with fragments of rainbows dancing over them. In 
this scene I at once recognised the wild landscape by the 
pencil of Dahl, the Norwegian painter, which had made 
such an impression upon me in Copenhagen. In Culd- 
brandsdal, we found at once what we had missed in the 
scenery of Ringerike — swift, foaming streams. Here they 
leapt from every rift of the upper crags, brightening the 
gloom of the fir-woods which clothed the mountain-sides, 
like silver braiding upon a funeral garment. This valley 
is the pride of Norway, nearly as much for its richness as 
for its beauty and grandeur. The houses were larger an 
more substantial, the fields blooming, with frequent orcli 
ards of fruit-trees, and the farmers, in their Sunday attire 
showed in their faces a little more intelligence than the pec 
pie we had seen on our way thither. Their countenances 
had a plain, homely stamp; and of all the large-limbed, 
strong-backed forms I saw, not one could be called graceful, 



256 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

or even symmetrical. Something awkward and uncouth 
stamps the country people of Norway. Honest and simple- 
minded they are said to be, and probably are ; but of native 
refinement of feeling they can have little, unless all outward 
igns of character are false. 

We changed horses at Moshuus, and drove up a level 
splendid road to Holmen, along the river-bank. The high- 
way, thus far, is entirely new, and does great credit to Nor- 
wegian enterprise. There is not a better road in all Europe ; 
and when it shall be carried through to Drontheim, the ter- 
rors which this trip has for timid travellers will entirely dis- 
appear. It is a pity that the skyds system should not be 
improved in equal ratio, instead of becoming even more in- 
convenient than at present. Holmen, hitherto a fast sta- 
tion, is now no longer so ; and the same retrograde change 
is going on at other places along the road. The waiting 
at the tilsigelse stations is the great drawback to travelling 
by skyds in Norway. You must either wait two hours or 
pay fast prices, which the people are not legally entitled to 
ask. Travellers may write complaints in the space allotted 
in the post-books for such things, but with very little result, 
if one may judge from the perfect indifference which the sta- 
tion-masters exhibit when you threaten to do so. I was 
more than tmce tauntingly asked whether I would not write 
a complaint. In Sweden, I found but one instance of inat- 
tention at the stations, during two months' travel, and ex- 
pected, from the boasted honesty of the Norwegians, to meet 
with an equally fortunate experience. Travellers, however, 
and especially English, are fast teaching the people the usual 
arts of imposition. Oh, you hard-shelled, unplastic, insu* 



GULDBRANDSDAL AND THE DOVRE FJELD. 257 

lated Englishmen ! You introduce towels and fresh water 
and tea, and beef-steak, wherever you go, it is true ; but you 
teach high prices, and swindling, and insolence likewise ! 

A short distance beyond Holmen, the new road terminated, 
and we took the old track over steep spurs of the mountain, 
rising merely to descend and rise again. The Lougen River 
here forms a broad, tranquil lake, a mile in width, in which 
the opposite mountains were splendidly reflected. The 
water is pale, milky-green colour, which, under certain ef- 
fects of light, has a wonderful aerial transparency. As we 
approached Losnas. after this long and tedious stage, I was 
startled by the appearance of a steamer on the river. It is 
utterly impossible for any to ascend the rapids below Mos- 
huus ; and she must therefore have been built there. We 
could discover no necessity for such an undertaking in the 
thin scattered population and their slow, indifferent habits 
Her sudden apparition in such a place was like that of an 
omnibus in the desert. 

The magnificent vista of the valley was for a time closed 
by the snowy peaks of the Rundan Fjeld ; but as the direc- 
tion of the river changed they disappeared, the valley con- 
tracted, and its black walls, two thousand feet high, almost 
overhung us. Below, however, were still fresh meadows, 
twinkling birchen groves and comfortable farm-houses* 
Out of a gorge on our right, plunged a cataract from a 
height of eighty or ninety feet, and a little further on, high 
up the mountain, a gush of braided silver foam burst out of 
the dark woods, covered with gleaming drapery the face of a 
huge perpendicular crag, and disappeared in the woods again 
My friend drew up his horse in wonder and rapture. fl J 



258 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

know all Switzerland and the Tyrol,'' he exclaimed, 4 but 
I have never seen a cataract so wonderfully framed in the 
setting of a forest." In the evening, as we approached our 
destination, two streams on the opposite side of the valley, 
^ell from a height of more than a thousand feet, in a series 
of linked plunges, resembling burnished chains hanging 
dangling from the tremendous parapet of rock. On the 
meadow before us, commanding a full view of this wild and 
glorious scene, stood a stately gaard, entirely deserted, its 
barns, out-houses and gardens utterly empty and desolate. 
Its aspeet saddened the whole landscape. 

We stopped at the station of Lillehaave, which had only 
been established the day before, and we were probably the 
first travellers who had sojourned there. Consequently the 
people were unspoiled, and it was quite refreshing to be 
courteously received, furnished with a trout supper and ex- 
cellent beds, and to pay therefor an honest price. The 
morning was lowering, and we had rain part of the day ; 
but, thanks to our waterproofs and carriole aprons, we kept 
comfortably dry. During this day's journey of fifty miles, 
we had very grand scenery, the mountains gradually in- 
creasing in height and abruptness as we ascended the Guld- 
brandsdal, with still more imposing cataracts " blowing their 
trumpets from the steeps." At Viik, I found a complaint 
in the post-book, written by an Englishman who had come 
/nth us from Hull, stating that the landlord had made him 
ay five dollars for beating his dog off his own. The com- 
plaint was written in English, of course, and therefore use- 
less so far as the authorities were concerned. The landlord 
whom I expected, from this accDunt, to find a surly, swind- 



6ULDBRANDSDAL AND THE DOVRE FJELD. 259 

ling fellow, accosted us civilly, and invited us into his 
house to see some old weapons, principally battle-axes. There 
was a cross-bow, a battered, antique sword, and a buff coat, 
which may have. been stripped from one of Sinclair's men 
m the pass of Kringelen. The logs of his house, or part 
of them, are said to have been taken from the dwelling in 
which the saint-king Olaf — the apostle of Christianity in 
the North, — was born. They are of the red Norwegian 
pine, which has a great durability ; and the legend may be 
true, although this would make them eight hundred and 
fifty years old. 

Colonel Sinclair was buried in the churchyard at Viik, 
and about fifteen miles further we passed the defile of 
Kringelen, where his band was cut to pieces. He landed in 
Romdal's Fjord, on the western coast, with 900 men intend- 
ing to force his way across the mountains to relieve Stock- 
holm, which was then (1612) besieged by the Danes. Some 
three hundred of the peasants collected at Kringelen, 
gathered together rocks and trunks of trees on the brow of 
the cliff, and, at a concerted signal, rolled the mass down 
upon the Scotch, the greater part of whom were crushed to 
death or hurled into the river. Of the whole force only twc 
escaped. A wooden tablet on the spot says, as near as 1 
could make it out, that there was never such an example of 
courage and valour known in the world, and calls upon the 
people to admire this glorious deed of their fathers. " Cou- 
rage and valour;' 7 cried Braisted, indignantly; "it was a 
owardly butchery ! If they had so much courage, why did 
,hey allow 900 Scotchmen to get into the very heart of the 
country before they tried to stop them ? ,? Well, war is full 



260 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

of meanness and cowardice. If it were only fair fighting on 
an open field, there would he less of it. 

Beyond Laurgaard, Guldbrandsdal contracts to a narrow 
g)rge, down which the Lougen roars in perpetual foam. 
This pass is called the Rusten ; and the road here is exces- 
sively steep and difficult. The forests disappear ; only 
hardy firs and the red pine cling to the ledges of the rocks • 
and mountains, black, grim, and with snow-streaked sum- 
mits, tower grandly on all sides. A broad cataract, a 
hundred feet high, leaped down a chasm on our left, so near 
to the road that its sprays swept over us, and then shot un- 
der a bridge to join the seething flood in the frightful gulf 
beneath. 1 was reminded of the Valley of the Reuss, on the 
road to St. Gothard, like which, the pass of the Rusten leads 
to a cold and bleak upper valley. Here we noticed the 
blight of late frost on the barley fields, and were for the first 
time assailed by beggars. Black storm-clouds hung over 
the gorge, adding to the savage wildness of its scenery ; but 
the sun came out as we drove up the Valley of Dovre, with 
its long stretch of grain-fields on the sunny sweep of the 
hillside, sheltered by the lofty Dovre Fjeld behind them. 
We stopped- for the night at the inn of Toftemoen, long 
before sunset, although it was eight o'clock, and slept in 
a half -day light until morning. 

The sun was riding high in the heavens when we left, 
and dark lowering clouds slowly rolled their masses across 
\}\q mountain-tops. The Lougen was now an inconsiderable 
scream, and the superb Guldbrandsdal narrowed to a bare. 
bie\k dell, lik3 those in the high Alps. The grain-fields 
had a chilled, struggling appearance; the forests forsook 



GULDBRANDSDAL AND THE DOVRE FJELD. 261 

the mountain-sides and throve only in sheltered spots at 
their bases ; the houses were mere log cabins, many of which 
were slipping off' their foundation-posts and tottering to 
their final fall ; and the people, poorer than ever, came out 
of their huts to beg openly and shamelessly as we passed 
Over the head of the vadey, which here turns westward to 
the low water-shed dividing it from the famous Romsdal, 
rose two or three snow-streaked peaks of the Hurunger 
Fjeld ; and the drifts filling the ravines of the mountains 
on our left descended lower and lower into the valley. 

At Dombaas, a lonely station at the foot of the Dovre 
Fjeld, we turned northward into the heart of the mountains. 
My postillion, a boy of fifteen, surprised me by speaking 
very good English. He had learned it in the school at 
Drontheim. Sometimes, he said, they had a schoolmaster 
in the house, and sometimes one at Jerkin, twenty miles 
distant. Our road ascended gradually through half-cut 
woods of red pine, for two or three miles, after which it 
entered a long valley, or rather basin, belonging to the table 
land of the Dovre Fjeld. Stunted heath and dwarfed juni- 
per-bushes mixed with a grey, foxy shrub-willow, covered 
the soil, and the pale yellow of the reindeer moss stained 
the rocks. Higher greyer and blacker ridges hemmed in 
the lifeless landscape ; and above them, to the north and 
west, broad snow-fields shone luminous under the heavy folds 
of the clouds. We passed an old woman with bare legs and 
.arms, returning from a sdter, or summer chalet of the shep 
herds. She was a powerful but purely animal specimen of 
humanity, — "beef to the heel/' as Braisted said. At last a 

cluster of log huts, wi'Ii a patch of green pasture-frrounc 1 
12* 



2%2 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

about them, broke the monotony of the scene. It was 
Fogstuen, or next station, where we were obliged to wait 
half an hour until the horses had been caught and brought 
in. The place had a poverty stricken air; and the slovenly 
woman who acted as landlady seemed disappointed that we 
did not bay some horridly coarse and ugly woolen gloves of 
her own manufacture. 

Our road now ran for fourteen miles along the plateau of 
the Dovre, more than 3000 feet above the level of the sea. 
r This is not a plain or table land ? but an undulating region, 
with hills, valleys, and lakes of its own; and more desolate 
landscapes one can scarcely find elsewhere. Everything is 
grey, naked, and barren, not on a scale grand enough to be 
imposing, nor with any picturesqueness of form to relieve 
its sterility. One can understand the silence and sternness 
of the Norwegians, when he has travelled this road. But I 
would not wish my worst enemy to spend more than one 
summer as a solitary herdsman on these hills. Let anydis 
ciple of Zimmerman try the effect of such a solitude. The 
statistics of insanity in Norway exhibit some of its effects, 
and that which is most common is most destructive. There 
never was a greater humbug than the praise of solitude : it 
is the fruitful mother of all evil, and no man covets it who 
has not something bad or morbid in his nature. 

By noon the central ridge or comb of the Dovre Fjeld 
rose before us, with the six-hundred-year old station of 
Jerkin in a warm nook on its southern side. This is re^ 
Tiowned as the best post-station in Norway, and is a favour- 
ite resort of English travellers and sportsmen, who come 
hither to climb the peak of Snaehatten, and fo stalk rein* 



GULDBRANDSDAL AND THE DOVRE PJELD. 262 

deer, f did not find the place particularly inviting. The 
two women who had charge of it for the time were unusuallj 
silent and morose, but our dinner was cheap and well gotten 
up, albeit the trout were not the freshest. We admired the 
wonderful paintings of the landlord, which although noticed 
by Murray, give little promise for Norwegian art in these 
high latitudes. His cows, dogs, and men are all snow-white, 
and rejoice in an original anatomy. 

' The horses on this part of the road were excellent, the 
road admirable, and our transit was therefore thoroughly 
agreeable. The ascent of the dividing- ridge, after leaving 
Jerkin, is steep and toilsome for half a mile, but with this 
exception the passage of the Dovre Pjeld is remarkably 
easy. The highest point which the road crossed is about 
4600 feet above the sea, or a little higher than the Brenner 
Pass in the Tyrol. But there grain grow r s and orchards 
oear fruit, while here, under the parallel of 62°, nearly all 
vegetation ceases, and even the omnivorous northern sheep 
can find no pasturage. Before and behind you lie wastes of 
naked grey mountains, relieved only by the snow-patches on 
their summits. I have seen as desolate tracts of wilder- 
ness in the south made beautiful by the lovely hues which 
they took from the air ; but Nature has no such tender fan- 
cies in the north. She is a realist of the most unpitying 
stamp, and gives atmospheric influences which make that 

which is dark and bleak still darker and bleaker. Black 
clouds hung low on the horizon, and dull grey sheets of rain 
swept now and then across the nearer heights. Snsehatten, 

'o the westward, was partly veiled, but we could trace bis 

olunt mound of alternate black rock and snow nearly to the 



264 NORTHERN HIAVEL. 

apex. The peak is about 7700 feet above the sea, and wa* 
until recently considered the highest in Norway, but the 
Skagtolstind has been ascertained to be 160 feet higher, and 
Snsehatten is dethroned. 

The river Driv came out of a glen on our left, and en- 
tered a deep gorge in front, down which our road lay, fol- 
lowing the rapid descent of the foaming stream. At the 
station of Kongsvold, we had descended to 3000 feet again, 
yet no trees appeared. Beyond this, the road for ten miles 
has been with great labour hewn out of the solid rock, at 
the bottom of a frightful defile, like some of those among 
the Alps. Formerly, it climbed high up on the mountain- 
side, running on the brink of almost perpendicular cliffs, 
and the Vaarsti, as it is called, was then reckoned one of 
the most difficult and dangerous roads in the country. Now 
it is one of the safest and most delightful. We went down 
the pass on a sharp trot, almost too fast to enjoy the wild 
scenery as it deserved. The Driv fell through the cleft in 
a succession of rapids, while smaller streams leaped to meet 
him in links of silver cataract down .a thousand feet of cliff. 
Birch and fir now clothed the little terraces and spare cor- 
ners of soil, and the huge masses of rock, hanging over our 
heads, were tinted with black, warm brown, and russet 
orange, in such a manner as to produce the most charming 
effects of colour. Over the cornices of the mountain-walls, 
hovering at least two thousand feet above, gleamed here and 
there the scattered snowy jotuns of the highest fjeld. 

The pass gradually opened into a narrow valley, where 
we found a little cultivation again. Here was the post of 
Drivstuen, kept by a merry old Jady. Our next stage do- 



GULDBRAXDSDAL AND THE D0VRE FJELD. 265 

seended through increasing habitation and culture to the ins 
of Rise, where we stopped for the night, having the Dovre 
Fjeld fairly behind us. The morning looked wild and 
threatening, but the clouds gradually hauled off to the east- 
ward, leaving us the promise of a fine day. Our road led 
over hills covered with forests of fir and pine, whence we 
looked into a broad valley clothed with the same dark gar- 
ment of forest, to which the dazzling white snows of the 
fjeld in the background made a striking contrast. We here 
left the waters of the Driv and struck upon those of the 
Orkla. which flow into Drontheim Fjord. At Stuen, we 
got a fair breakfast of eggs, milk, cheese, bread and butter. 
Ei r gs are plentiful everywhere, yet, singularly enough, we 
were nearly a fortnight in Norway before we either saw or 
heard a single fowl Where they were kept we could not 
discover, and why they did not crow was a still greater mys- 
tery. Norway is really the land of silence. For an inhab- 
ited country, it is the quietest I have ever seen. No won- 
der that anger and mirth, when they once break through the 
hard ice of Norwegian life, are so furious and uncontroll- 
able. These inconsistent extremes may always be reconcil- 
ed, when we understand how nicely the moral nature of man 
is balanced. 

Our road was over a high, undulating tract for two stages, 
commanding wide views of a wild wooded region, which is 
said to abound with game. The range of sncwy peaks be- 
hind us still filled the sky, appearing so near at hand as to 
deceive the eye in regard to their height. At last, we came 
upon the brink of a steep descent, overlooking the deep glen 
of the Orkla, a singularly picturesque valley, issuing from 



266 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

between the bases of the mountains, and winding away to 
the northward. Down the frightful slant our horses plunged, 
and in three minutes we were at the bottom, with flower- 
sown meadows on either hand, and the wooded sides of the 
glen sweeping up to a waving and fringed outline against the 
sky. After crossing the stream, we had an ascent as abrupt, 
on the other side; but half-way up stood the station of 
Bjaerkager, where we left our panting horses. The fas 
stations were now at an end, but by paying fast prices we 
got horses with less delay. In the evening, a man travelling 
on foot offered to carry forbad notices for us to the remain^ 
ing station^ if we would pay for his horse. We accepted ; 
I wrote the orders in my best Norsk, and on the following 
day we found the horses in readiness everywhere. 

The next stage was an inspiring trot through a park-like 
country, clothed with the freshest turf and studded with 
clumps of fir, birch, and ash. The air was soft and warm, 
and filled with balmy scents from the flowering grasses, and 
the millions of blossoms spangling the ground. In one 
place, I saw half an acre of the purest violet hue, where the 
pansy of our gardens grew so thickly that only its blossoms 
were visible. The silver green of the birch twinkled in the 
Bun, and its jets of delicate foliage started up everywhere 
with exquisite effect amid the dark masses of the fir. There 
was little cultivation as yet, but these trees formed natural 
orchards, which suggested a design in their planting and 
redeemed the otherwise savage character of the scenery. 
We dipped at last into a hollow, down which flowed one of 
the tributaries of the Guul Elv, the course of which W€ 
thence followed to Drontheim. 



GLLDBRANDSDAL AND THE DOVRE FJELD. 2C$? 

One of the stations was a lonely gaard, standing apart 
from the road, on a high hill. As we drove up, a horrid old 
has; came out to receive us. u Can I get three horses soon ? ,; 
I asked. u No/' she answered with a chuckle. " How 
Boon ?" " In a few hours," was her indifferent reply, but the 
promise of paying fast rates got them in less than one. My 
friend wanted a glass of wine, but the old woman said she 
had nothing but milk. We were sitting on the steps with 
our pipes, shortly afterwards, when she said : " Why don't 
you go into the house ?" "It smells too strongly of paint," 
I answered. "But you had better go in," said she, and 
shuffled off. When we entered, behold ! there were three 
glasses of very good Marsala on the table. " How do you 
sell your milk ?" I asked her. " That kind is three skillings 
a dram/' she answered. The secret probably was that she 
had no license to "sell wine. 1 was reminded of an incident 
which occurred to me in Maine, during the prevalence of the 
prohibitory law. I was staying at an hotel in a certain 
.town, and jestingly asked the landlord : " Where is the 
Maine Law ? I should like to see it." " Why," said he, " I 
have it here in the house ;" and he unlocked a back room 
and astonished me with the sight of a private bar, studded 
with full decanters. 

The men folks were all away at work, and our postillion 
was a strapping girl of eighteen, who rode behind Braisted. 
She was gotten up on an immense scale, but nature had ex 
pended so much vigour on her body that none was left for hei 
brain. She was a consummate representation of health and 
Stupidity. At the station where we stopped for the night. 
T could not help admiring the solid bulk of the landlady's 



' 268 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

sister. Although not over twenty four she must havt 
weighed full two hundred. Her waist was of remarkable 
thickness, aind her bust might be made into three average 
American ones. I can now understand why Miigge calls his 
neroine Ilda " the strong maiden. * 

A drive of thirty-five miles down the picturesque valley 
of the Guul brought us to Drontheim the next day — the 
eighth after leaving Christiania. 



DRONTHEIM.— VO* AGE UP THE COAST OF NORWAY 269 



CHAPTER XX11I. 

DROXTHEIM. VOYAGE UP THE COAST OF NORWAY. 

Otjr first view of Drontheim (or Trondhjem,ns !• should 
properly be written) was from the top of the hill behind 
the town, at the termination of six miles of execrable road, 
and perhaps the relief springing from that circumstance 
heightened the agreeable impression which the scene made 
upon our minds. Below us, at the bottom of a crescent- 
shaped bay, lay Drontheim — a mass of dark red, yellow, 
and brown buildings, with the grey cathedral in the rear. 
The rich, well cultivated valley of the Nid stretched be- 
hind it, on our ri^ht, past the Lierfoss, whose column of 
foam was visible three miles away, until the hills, rising 
more high and bleak behind each other, completely enclosed 
it. The rock-fortress of Munkholm, in front of the city, 
broke the smooth surface of the fjord, whose further shores, 
dim with passing showers, swept away to the north-east, hid- 
ing the termination of this great sea-arm, which is some 
fifty miles distant. The panorama was certainly on a grand 
scale, and presented very diversified and picturesque fea- 
tures; but 1 can by no means agree with Dr. Clarke, who 
compares it to the Bay of Naples. Not only the rich col 



870 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

ours of the Mediterranean are wanting, but those harmonic 
sweeps and curves of the Italian shores and hills have 
nothing in common with these rude, ragged, weather beaten, 
defiant forms. 

Descending the hill between rows of neat country-houses, 
«re passed a diminutive fortification, and entered the city 
The streets are remarkably wide and roughly paved, cross- 
ing each other at right angles, with a Philadelphian regu- 
larity. The houses are all two stories high, and raised 
upon ample foundations, so that the doors are approached by 
flights of steps — probably on account of the deep snows dur- 
ing the winter. They are almost exclusively of wood, solid 
logs covered with neat clap-boards, but a recent law forbids 
the erection of any more wooden houses, and in the course of 
time, the town, like Christiania, will lose all that is peculiar 
and characteristic in its architecture. A cleaner place can 
scarcely be found, and I also noticed, what is quite rare in 
the North, large square fountains or wells, at the intersection 
of all the principal streets. The impression which Dron- 
theim makes upon the stranger is therefore a cheerful and 
genial one. Small and unpretending though it be, it is full 
of pictures ; the dark blue fjord closes the vista of half its 
streets ; hills of grey rock, draped with the greenest turf, 
overlook it on either side, and the beautiful valley of the 
Nid, one of the loveliest nooks of Norway, lies in its rear. 

We drove to the Hotel de Belle-Vue, one of the two lit* 
tie caravanserais of which the town boasts, and were fortu- 
nate in securing the two vacant rooms. The bote] business 
in Norway is far behind that of any other country, except 
in regard to charges, where it is far in advance. Consider- 



DRONTHEfM.— -VOYAGE UP THE COAST OF NORWAY. 271 

ing what one gets for his money, this is the most expensive 
country in the world for foreigners. Except where the rates 
are fixed by law, as in posting, the natives pay much less ; 
and here is an instance of double-dealing which does no 1 
harmonise with the renowned honesty of the Norwegians 
At the Belle- Vue, we were furnished with three very meagre 
meals a day, at the rate of two dollars and a half. The at- 
tendance was performed by two boys of fourteen or fifteen, 
whose services, as may be supposed, were quite inadequate to 
the wants of near twenty persons. The whole business of 
the establishment devolved on these two fellows, the land- 
lady, though good-humoured and corpulent, as was meet, 
knowing nothing about the business, and, on the whole, it 
was a wonder that matters were not worse. It is singular 
that in a pastoral country like Norway one gets nothing but 
rancid butter, and generally sour cream, where both should 
be of the finest quality. Nature is sparing of her gifts, to 
be sure ; but what she does furnish is of the best, as it comes 
from her hand. Of course, one does not look for much cu- 
linary skill, and is therefore not disappointed, but the dairy 
is the primitive domestic art of all races, and it is rather 
surprising to find it in so backward a state. 

My friend, who received no letters, and had no transat- 
lantic interests to claim his time, as I had. applied himself 
to seeing the place, which he accomplished, with praisewor 
thy industry, in one day. He walked out to the falls of th 
Nid_, three miles up the valley, and was charmed with them. 
He then entered the venerable cathedral, where he had the 
satisfaction of seeing a Protestant clergyman perform high 
ma?s in a scarlet surplice, with a gold cross on his back 



272 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

The State Church of Norway, which, like that of Sweden^ 
is Lutheran of a very antiquated type, not only preserves 
this ritual, but also the form of confession (in a general way, 
I believe, and without reference to particular sins) and of 
absolution. Of course, it is violently dogmatic and illiberal, 
and there is little vital religious activity in the whole coun- 
try. Until within a very few years, no other sects were tol- 
erated, and even yet there is simply freedom of conscience; 
but not equal political rights, for those of other denomina- 
tions. This concession has perhaps saved the church from 
becoming a venerable fossil, yet one still finds persons who 
regret that it should have been made, not knowing that all 
truth, to retain its temper, must be whetted against an op- 
posing blade. According to the new constitution of Nor- 
way, the king must be crowned in the cathedral of Dron- 
theim. Bernadotte received the proper consecration, but 
Oscar, though King of Norway, has not yet seen fit to 
accept it. I once heard a Norwegian exclaim, with a sort 
of jealous satisfaction : " Oscar calls himself King of Nor- 
way, but he is a king without a crown !" 1 cannot see, how- 
ever, that this fact lessens his authority as sovereign, in the 
least. 

There is a weekly line of steamers, established by the 
Storthing (Legislative Assembly), to Hammerfest and around 
the North Cape. The " Nordkap," the largest and best of 
these boats, was to leave Drontheim on Saturday evening, 
the 18th of July, and we lost no time in securing berths, as 
another week would have made it too late for the perpetual 
sunshine of the northern summer. Here again, one is in- 
troduced to a knowledge of customs and regulations un- 



DRONTHIEM.— V0Y1GE UP THE COAST OI NORWAY. 273 

known elsewhere. The ticket merely secures you a place on 
board the steamer, but neither a berth nor provisions. The 
latter you obtain from a restaurateur on board, according to 
txed rates ; the former depends on the will of the captain, 
who can stow you where he chooses. On the " Nordkap" 
the state-rooms were already occupied, and there remained 
a single small saloon containing eight berths. Here we did 
very well so long as there were only English and American 
occupants, who at once voted to have the skylight kept open; 
but after two Norwegians were added to our company, we lived 
in a state of perpetual warfare, the latter sharing the national 
dread of fresh air; and yet one of them was a professor 
from the University of Christiania, and the other aphysi-' 
cian, who had charge of the hospital in Bergen ! With this 
exception, we had every reason to be satisfied with the vessel. 
She was very stanch and steady-going, with a spacious airy 
saloon on deck ; no captain could have been more kind and 
gentlemanly, and there was quite as much harmony among 
the passengers as could reasonably have been expected. Our 
party consisted of five Americans, three English, two Ger- 
mans, and one Frenchman (M. Gay, Membre dePAeademie), 
besides a variety of Norwegians from all parts of the 
country. 

Leaving our carrioles and part of our baggage behind us, 
we rowed out to the steamer in a. heavy shower. The sun 
was struggling with dark grey rain-clouds all the evening, 
and just as we hove anchor, threw a splendid triumphal iris 
across the bay, completely spanning the town, which, with 
':he sheltering hills, glimmered in the rosy mist floating 
within the bow. Enclosed by such a dazzling frame the 



274 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

picture of Drontheim shone with a magical lustre, like d 
vision of Asgaard, beckoning to us from the tempestuous 
seas. But we were bound for the north, the barriers oi 
Niflhem, the land of fog and sleet, and we disregarded the 
celestial token, though a second perfect rainbow overarched 
the first, and the two threw their curves over hill and for- 
tress and the bosom of the rainy fjord, until they almost 
touched our vessel on either side. In spite of the rain, we 
remained on deck until a late hour, enjoying the bold see* 
nery of the outer fjord — here, precipitous woody shores, 
gashed with sudden ravines ; there, jet-black rocky peaks, 
resembling the porphyry hills of the African deserts ; and 
now and then, encircling the sheltered coves, soft green fields 
glowing with misty light, and the purple outlines of snow- 
streaked mountains in the distance. 

The morning was still dark and rainy. We were at first 
running between mountain-islands of bare rock and the iron 
coast of the mainland, after which came a stretch of open 
sea for two hours, and at noon we reached Bjoro, near the 
mouth of the Namsen Fjord. Here there was half a dozen 
red houses on a bright green slope, with a windmill out of 
gear crowning the rocky hill in the rear. The sky gradu- 
ally cleared as we entered the Namsen Fjord, which charmed 
us with the wildness and nakedness of its shores, studded 
with little nooks and corners of tillage, which sparkled like 
oases of tropical greenness, in such a rough setting. Pre- 
cipices of dark -red rock, streaked with foamy lines of water 
from the snows melting upon their crests, frowned over the 
narrow channels between the islands, and through their 
^aps and gorges we caught sight of the loftier ranges in 



DRONTHEIM.— VOIAGE UP THE COAST OF NORWAY. 275 

land. Namsos, at the head of the fjord, is a red-roofed 
town of a few hundred inhabitants, with a pleasant back- 
ground of barley-fields and birchen groves. The Namsen 
valley, behind it, is one of the richest in this part of Nor- 
way, and is a great resort of English salmon-fishers. There 
was a vessel of two hundred tons on the stocks, and a few 
coasting crafts lying at anchor. 

We had a beautiful afternoon voyage out another arm of 
the fjord, and again entered the labyrinth of islands fringing 
the coast. Already, the days had perceptibly lengthened, 
and the increased coldness of the air at night indicated our 
approach to the Arctic Circle. I was surprised at the 
amount of business done at the little stations where* we 
touched. Few of these contained a dozen houses, yet the 
quantity of passengers and freight which we discharged and 
took on board, at each, could only be explained by the fact 
that these stations are generally outlets for a tolerably large 
population, hidden in the valleys and fjords behind, which 
the steamer does not visit. Bleak and desolate as the coast 
appears, the back country has its fertile districts-— its pas- 
ture-ground, its corn-land and forests, of which the voyager 
sees nothing, and thus might be led to form very erroneous 
conclusions. Before we had been twenty-four hours out 
from Drontheim, there was a marked change in the appear- 
ance of the people we took on board. Not even . in the 
neighborhood of Ohristiania or in the rich Guldbrandsdal 
were the inhabitants so well-dressed, so prosperous (judging 
from outward signs, merely), or so intelligent. They are in 
every respect more agreeable and premising specimens oi 
humanity than their brothers of Southern Norway, not with- 



£lQ NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

standing the dark and savage scenery amidst which their lot 
is cast. 

Toward midnight, we approached the rock of TorghStten,^ 
rising 1200 feet high, in the shape of a tajl-crowned, battered 
" wide-awake," above the low, rocky isles and reefs which 
surround it. This rock is famous for a natural tunned 
passing directly through its heart — the path of an arrow 
which the Giant Horseman (of whom I shall speak presently 
shot at a disdainful maiden, equally colossal, in the old 
mythological times, when Odin got drunk nightly in Wal- 
halla. We were all on the look-out for this tunnel, which, 
according to Murray, is large enough for a ship to go through 
— if it were not some six hundred feet above the sea-level. 
We had almost passed the rock and nothing of the kind 
could be seen ; but Capt. Riis, who was on deck, encouraged 
us to have a little patience, changed the steamer's course, 
and presently we saw a dark cavern yawning in the face of 
a precipice on the northern side. It was now midnight, but 
a sunset light tinged the northern sky, and the Torghatten 
yet stood in twilight. " Shall we see through it ?" was the 
question ; but while we were discussing the chances, a faint 
star sparkled in the midst of the cavernous gloom. " You 
see it because you imagine it," cried some ; yet, no, it was 
steadfast, and grew broad and bright, until even the most 
sceptical recognised the pale midnight sky at the bottom of 
the gigantic arch. 

My friend aroused me at five in the morning to see the 
Seven Sisters — seven majestic peaks, 4000 feet high, and 
seated closely side by side, with their feet in the sea. They 
all wore nightcaps of gray fog, and had a sullen and sleepy 



DRONTHEIM.— VOYAGE UP THE COAST OF NORWAY 277 

air. I imagined they snored, but it was a damp wind driv- 
ing over the rocks. They were northern beauties, hard- 
featured and large-boned, and I would not give a graceful 
southern hill, like Monte Albano or- the Paphian Olympus, 
for the whole of them. So I turned in again, and did not 
awake until the sun had dried the decks, and the split 
twisted and contorted forms of the islands gave promise of 
those remarkable figures which mark the position of the 
Arctic Circle. There was already a wonderful change in 
the scenery. The islands were high and broken, rising like 
towers and pyramids from the water, and grouped together 
in the most fantastic confusion. Between their jagged pin- 
nacles, and through their sheer walls of naked rock, we could 
trace the same formation among the hills of the mainland, 
while in the rear, white against the sky, stretched the snowy 
table-land which forms a common summit for all. One is 
bewildered in the attempt to describe such scenery. There 
is no central figure, no prevailing character, no sharp con- 
trasts, which may serve as a guide whereby to reach the im- 
agination of the reader. All is confused, disordered, chaotic. 
One begins to understand the old Norse myth of these stones 
being thrown by the devil in a vain attempt to prevent the 
Lord from finishing the world. Grand as they are, singly, 
you are so puzzled by their numbers and by the fantastic 
manner in which they seem to dance around you, as the 
gteamer threads the watery labyrinth, that you scarcely ap- 
preciate them as they deserve. Take almost any one of 
these hundreds, and place it inland, anywhere ir* Europe or 
America, and it will be visited, sketched and sung to dis- 
traction. 
13 



278 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

At last we saw in the west, far out at sea, the four towers 
of Threnen, rising perpendicularly many hundred feet from 
the water. Before us was the Hestmand. or Horseman, 
who bridles his rocky steed with the polar circle. At first, 
he appeared like a square turret crowning an irregular mass 
of island-rock, but, as we approached a colossal head rounded 
itself at the top, and a sweeping cloak fell from the broad 
shoulder, flowing backward to the horse's flanks. Still, there 
was no horse ; but here again our captain took the steamer 
considerably out of her course, so that, at a distance of a 
mile the whole enormous figure, 1500 feet in height, lay 
clearly before us. A heavy beard fell from the grand, Jupi- 
tolian head ; the horse, with sharp ears erect and head bent 
down, seemed to be plunging into the sea, which was already 
above his belly ; the saddle had slipped forward, so that the 
rider sat upon his shoulders, but with his head proudly lifted, 
as if conscious of his fate, and taking a last look at the 
world. Was it not All-Father Odin, on his horse Sleipner, 
forsaking the new race which had ceased to worship him ? 
The colossi of the Orient — Rameses and Brahma and Boodh 
— dwindle into insignificance before this sublime natural 
monument to the lost gods of the North. 

At the little fishing-village of Anklakken, near the 
Horseman, a fair was being held, and a score or more of 
coasting craft, gay with Norwegian flags, lay at anchor. 
These jczgis, as they are called, have a single mast, with a 
large square sail, precisely like those of the Japanese fishing 
junks, and their hulls are scarcely less heavy and clumsy 
They are the Norwegian boats of a thousand years ago ; all 
attempt- to introduce a better form of ship-building having 



DRONTHEIM.— VOYAGE UP THE COAST OF NORWAY. 279 

been in vain. But the romantic traveller should not sup 
pose that he beholds the " dragons" of the Vikings, which 
were a very different craft, and have long since disappeared. 
The jcegts are slow, but good seaboats, and as the article 
haste is not in demand anywhere in Norway, they probabl) 
answer every purpose as well as more rational vessels. 
Those we saw belonged to traders who cruise along the 
coast during the summer, attending the various fairs, which 
appear to be the principal recreation of the people. At any 
rate, they bring some life and activity into these silent soli- 
tudes. We had on board the effects of an Englishman who 
went on shore to see a ^air and was left behind by a previous 
steamer. He had nothing with him but the clothes on his 
back, and spoke no Norsk : so the captain anxiously looked 
out for a melancholy, dilapidated individual at every station 
we touched at — -but he looked in vain, for we neither saw 
nor heard anything of the unfortunate person. 

All the afternoon, we had a continuation of the same 
wonderful scenery — precipices of red rock a thousand feet 
high, with snowy, turreted summits, and the loveliest green 
glens between. To the east were vast snow-fields, covering 
the eternal glaciers of the Alpine range. As we looked up 
the Salten Fjord, while crossing its mouth, the snows of Sul- 
telma, the highest mountain in Lappmark, 6000 feet above 
the sea, were visible, about fifty miles distant. Next came 
the little town of Bodo, where we stopped for the night. I 
is a cluster of wooden houses, with roofs of green sod, con* 
taining about three hundred inhabitants. We found pota- 
toes in the gardens, some currant bushes, and a few hardy 
vegetables, stunted ash trees and some patches of barley 



280 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

The sun set a little before eleven o'clock, but left behind him 
a glory of colours which I have never seen surpassed. The 
Bnowy mountains of Lapprnark were transmuted into pyra- 
mids of scarlet flame, beside which the most gorgeous sun- 
et illuminations of the Alps would have been pale and tame. 
The sky was a sheet of saffron, amber and rose, reduplicat- 
ed in the glassy sea, and the peaked island of Landegode in 
the west, which stood broad against the glow, became a mass 
of violet hue, topped with cliffs of crimson fire. I sat down 
on deck and tried to sketch this superb spectacle, in colours 
which nobody will believe to be real. Before I had finish- 
ed, the sunset which had lighted one end of Landegode be- 
came sunrise at the other, and the fading Alps burned anew 
with the flames of mornmg. 



THE LOFODEN ,SLES. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE LOFODEN ISLES. 



The northern summer soon teaches one fashionable habits 
of life. Like the man whose windows Sidney Smith dark- 
ened, and who slept all day because he thought it was night, 
you keep awake all night because you forget that it is not 
day. One's perception of time contracts in some mysterious 
way, and the sun, setting at eleven, seems to be no later than 
when he set at seven. You think you will enjoy the even- 
ing twilight an hour or two before going to bed, and lo ! the 
morning begins to dawn. It seems absurd to turn in and 
sleep by daylight, but you sleep, nevertheless, until eight 01 
nine o'clock, and get up but little refreshed with your repose. 
You miss the grateful covering of darkness, the sweet, wel- 
come gloom, which shuts your senses, one after one, like the 
closing petals of a flower, in the restoring trance of the night. 
The light comes through your eyelids as you sleep, and ? 
certain nervous life of the body that should sleep too keeps 
awake and active. I soon began to feel the wear and tear 
of perpetual daylight, in spite of its novelty and the manj 
advantages which it presents to the traveller. 

At Bodo, we were in sight of the Lofoden Islands, which 



282 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

filled up all the northern and western horizon, rising like 
blue saw-teeth beyond the broad expanse of the West FjorcL 
which separates them from the group of the shore islands 
The next morning, we threaded a perfect labyrinth jf rocks, 
ifter passing Groto, and headed across the fjord, for Bal- 
Btad, on West-Vaagoe, one of the outer isles. This passage 
is often very rough, especially when the wind blows from 
the south-west, rolling the heavy swells of the Atlantic into 
the open mouth of the fjord. We were very much favoured 
by the weather, having a clear sky, with a light north wind 
and smooth sea. The long line of jagged peaks, stretching 
from Vaeroe in the south west to the giant ridges of Hindoe 
in the north east, united themselves in the distance with the 
Alpine chain of the mainland behind us, forming an amphi* 
. theatre of sharp, snowy summits, which embraced five-sixths 
of the entire circle of the horizon, and would have certainly 
numbered not less than two hundred. Von Buch compares 
the Lofodens to the jaws of a shark, and most travellers 
since his time have resuscitated the comparison, but I did 
not find it so remarkably applicable. There are shark 
tooth peaks here and there, it is true, but the peculiar con- 
formation of Norway — ex tensive plateaus, forming the sum- 
mit-level of the mountains — extends also to these islands, 
whose only valleys are those which open to the sea, and 
whose interiors are uninhabitable snowy tracts, mostly above 
the line of vegetation. 

On approaching the islands, we had a fair view of the 
last outposts of the group — the solid barriers against which 
the utmost fury of the Atlantic dashes in vain. This side 
rf Vaeroe lay the large island of Moskoe, between which 



THE LOFODEN ISLES. 288 

and a. large solitary rock in the middle of the strait di 
viding them, is the locality of the renowned Maelstrom — 
now, alas ! almost as mythical as the kraaken or great sea 
snake of the Norwegian fjords. It is a great pity that the 
geographical illusions of our boyish days cannot ren nin. 
You learn that the noise of Niagara can be heard 120 miles 
off, and that " some Indians, in their canoes, have ventured 
down it. with safety." Well, one could give up the Indians 
without much difficulty ; but it is rather discouraging to 
3tep out of the Falls Depot for the first time, within a 
quarter of a mile of the cataract, and hear no sound except 
k< Cab sir ?" " Hotel, sir ?" So of the Maelstrom, denoted 
on my schoolboy map by a great spiral twist, which sug- 
gested to me a tremendous whirl of the ocean currents, 
aided by the information that "vessels cannot approach 
nearer than seven miles." In Olney, moreover, there was 
a picture of a luckless bark, half-way down the vortex. I 
had been warming my imagination, as we came up the 
coast, with Campbell's sonorous lines : 

" Round the shores where runic Odin 
Howls his war-song to the gale ; 
Round the isles where loud Lofoden 
Whirls to death the roaring whale ; ,: 

and, as we looked over the smooth water towards Moskoe 
felt a renewed desire to make an excursion thither on oil 
return from the north. But, according to Captain Riis, 
did other modern authorities which I consulted, the Mael- 
strom has lost all its terrors and attractions. Under certain 
conditions of wind and tide, an eddy is formed in the strait 



284 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

it is true, which may be dangerous to small boats — I ut tlit 
place is by no means so much dreaded as the Salten Fjord 
where the tide, rushing in, is caught in such a manner as 
to form a bore, as in the Bay of Fundy, and frequently 
proves destructive to the fishing craft. It is the general 
opinion that some of the rocks which formerly made the 
Maelstrom so terrible have been worn away, or that some 
submarine convulsion has taken place which has changed 
the action of the waters; otherwise it is impossible to ac- 
count for the reputation it once possessed. 

It should also be borne in mind that any a ,cident to a 
boat among these islands is more likely to pro> e disastrous 
than elsewhere, since there are probably not a score out of 
the twenty thousand Lofoden fishermen who pass half their 
lives on the water, who know how to swim. The water is 
too cold to make bathing a luxury, and they are not suffici- 
ently prepossessed in favour of cleanliness to make it a duty. 
Nevertheless, they are bold sailors, in their way, and a 
tougher, hardier, more athletic class of men it would be dif- 
ficult to find. Handsome they are not, but quite the re- 
verse, and the most of them have an awkward and uncouth 
air ; but it is refreshing to look at their broad shoulders, 
their brawny chests, and the massive muscles of their legs 
and arms. During the whole voyage, I saw but one man 
who appeared to be diseased. Such men, I suspect, were 
the Vikings — rough, powerful, ugly, dirty fellows, with a 
few primitive virtues, and any amount of robust vices. We 
noticed, however, a marked change for the better in the com- 
mon people, as we advanced northward. They were alto- 
gether better dressed, better mannered, and more independent 



THE LOFODEN ISLES. 283 

and intelligent, but with a hard, keen, practical expression 
of face, such as one finds among the shoremen of New-Eng- 
land. The school system of Norway is still sadly deficient 
but there is evidently no lack of natural capacity among 
these people. Their prevailing vice is intemperance, which 
here, as in all other parts of the country, is beginning to 
diminish since restrictions have been placed upon the manu- 
facture and sale of spirituous liquors, simultaneously with 
the introduction of cheap and excellent fermented drinks. 
The statistics of their morality also show a better state of 
things than in the South. There is probably no country 
population in the world where licentiousness prevails to such 
an extent as in the districts of Guldbrandsdal and Hede- 
mark. 

A voyage of four hours across the West Fjord brought 
us to the little village of Balstad, at the southern end of 
West-Vaagoe. The few red, sod-roofed houses were built 
upon a rocky point, behind which were some patches of 
bright green pasture, starred with buttercups, overhung by 
a splendid peak of dark-red rock, two thousand feet in 
height. It was a fine frontispiece to the Lofoden scenery 
which now opened before us. Running along the coast of 
West and East Vaagoe, we had a continual succession of 
the wildest and grandest pictures — thousand feet precipices, 
with turrets and needles of rock piercing the sky, dazzling 
snow-fields, leaking away in cataracts which filled the ra- 
vines with foam, and mazes of bald, sea-worn rocks, which 
seem to have been thrown down from the scarred peaks in 
some terrible convulsion of nature. Here and there were 

hollows, affording stony pasturage for a few sheep and cows 
13* 



286 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

and little wooden fisher-huts stood on the shore in the arms 
of sheltered coves. At the village of Svolvaer, which is 
built upon a pile of bare stones, we took on board a num- 
ber of ladies in fashionable dresses, with bonnets on the 
backs of their heads and a sufficiency of cumbrous petti- 
coats to make up for the absence of hoops, which have not 
yet got farther north than Dronthiem. In seeing these un- 
expected apparitions emerge from such a wild corner of 
chaos I could not but wonder at the march of modern civili- 
sation. Pianos in Lapland, Parisian dresses among the 
Lofodens, billiard- tables in Hammerfest — whither shall we 
turn to find the romance of the North ! 

We sailed, in the lovely nocturnal sunshine, through the 
long, river-like channel — the Rasksund, I believe, it is called 
— between the islands of East-Vaagoe and Hindoe, the larg- 
est of the Lofodens. For a distance of fifteen miles the strait 
was in no place more than a mile in breadth, while it was 
frequently less than a quarter. The smooth water was a 
perfect mirror, reflecting on one side the giant cliffs, with 
their gorges choked with snow, their arrowy pinnacles and 
white lines of falling water — on the other, hills turfed to 
the summit with emerald velvet, sprinkled with pale groves 
of birch and alder, and dotted, along their bases, with the 
dwellings of the fishermen. It was impossible to believe 
that we were floating on an arm of the Atlantic — it was 
some unknown river, or a lake high up among the Alpine 
peaks. The silence of these shores added to the impression. 
Now and then a white sea-gull fluttered about the cliifs, or 
an eider duck paddled across some glassy cove, but no sound 
was heard: there was no sail on the water, no human b«nij! 



THE LOFODEN ISLES. 28^ 

on the shore. Emerging at last from this wild and enchant- 
ing strait, we stood across a bay, opening southward to the 
Atlantic, to the port of Steilo, on one of the outer islands. 
Here the broad front of the island, rising against the roseate 
fcy, was one swell of the most glorious green, down to the 
very edge of the sea, while the hills of East-Vaagoe, across 
the bay, showed only naked and defiant rock, with summit- 
fields of purple-tinted snow. In splendour of coloring, the 
tropics were again surpassed, but the keen north wind 
obliged us to enjoy it in an overcoat. 

Toward midnight, the sun was evidently above the horizon, 
though hidden by intervening mountains. Braisted and 
another American made various exertions to see it, such as 
climbing the foremast, but did not succeed until about one 
o'clock, when they were favoured by a break in the hills. 
Although we had daylight the whole twenty-four hours, 
travellers do not consider that their duty is fulfilled unless 
they see the sun itself, exactly at midnight. In the morn- 
ing, we touched at Throndenaes, on the northern side oi 
Hindoe, a beautiful bay with green and wooded shores, and 
then, leaving the Lofodens behind us, entered the archipel- 
ago of large islands which lines the coast of Finmark. 
Though built on the same grand and imposing scale as the 
Lofodens, these islands are somewhat less jagged and ab- 
rupt in their forms, and exhibit a much more luxuriant veg- 
etation. In fact, after leaving the Namsen Fjord, ne&-£ 
Dronthiem, one sees very little timber until he reaches th<* 
oarallel of 69°. The long straits between Senjen and 
dvald and the mainland are covered with forests of birch 
and turfy slopes greener than England has ever shown. JM 



288 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

the same time the snow level was not more than 500 feet 
above the sea, and broad patches lay melting on all the 
lower hills. This abundance of snow seems a singular in* 
congruity, when you look upon the warm summer sky and 
the dark, mellow, juicy green of the shores. One fancies 
that he is either sailing upon some lofty inland lake, or that 
the ocean-level in these latitudes must be many thousand 
feet higher than in the temperate zone. He cannot believe 
that he is on the same platform with Sicily and Ceylon. 

After a trip up the magnificent Maans Fjord, and the 
Sight of some sea-green glaciers, we approached Tromsoe, 
the capital of Finmark. This is a town of nearly 3000 in- 
habitants, on a small island in the strait between Qvalo and 
the mainland. It was just midnight when we dropped an- 
chor, but, although the sun was hidden by a range of snowy 
hills in the north, the daylight was almost perfect. I im- 
mediately commenced making a sketch of the harbour, with 
its fleet of coasting vessels. Some Russian craft from xirch- 
angel, and a Norwegian cutter carrying six guns, were also 
at anchor before the town. Our French traveller, after 
amusing himself with the idea of my commencing a picture 
at sunset and finishing it at sunrise, started for a morning 
ramble over the hills Boats swarmed around the steamer 
the coal-lighters came oif, our crew commenced their work, 
and when the sun ? s disc appeared, before one o'clock, there 
was another day inaugurated. The night had vanished 
mysteriously, no one could tell how. 



FINMARK AND HAMMERFEST 289 



CHAPTER XXV. 

FINMARK AND HAMMERFEST. 

The steamer lay at Tromsoe all day, affording us an 
oj portunity to visit an encampment of Lapps in Tromsdal, 
about four miles to the eastward. So far as the Lapps were 
concerned, I had seen enough of them, but I joined the party 
for the sake of the northern summer. The captain was kind 
enough to despatch a messenger to the Lapps, immediately 
on our arrival, that their herd of reindeer, pasturing on the 
mountains, might be driven down for our edification, and 
also exerted himself to procure a horse for the American 
lady. The horse came, in due time, but a side saddle is an 
article unknown in the arctic regions, and the lady was 
obliged to trust herself to a man's saddle and the guidance 
of a Norseman of the most remarkable health, strength, and 
stupidity. 

Our path led up a deep valley, shut in by overhanging 
cliffs, and blocked up at the eastern end by the huge mass of 
the fjeld. The streams, poured down the crags from their 
snowy reservoirs, spread themselves over the steep side of 
the hill, making a succession of quagmires, over which we 
were obliged to spring and 3cr amble in break-neck style. 



290 NORTHERN TRAVJiL. 

The sun was intensely hot in the enclosed valley, and we 
found the shade of the birchen groves very grateful. Scm<*. 
of the trees grew to a height of forty feet, with trunks the 
thickness of a man's body. There were also ash and aldei 
trees, of smaller size, and a profusion of brilliant wild 
flowers. The little multeberry was in blossom ; the ranun 
cuius, the globe-flower, the purple geranium, the heath, and 
the blue forget-me-not spangled the ground, and on every 
hillock the young ferns unrolled their aromatic scrolls 
written with wonderful fables of the southern spring. F*\r 
it was only spring here, or rather the very beginning of 
summer. The earth had only become warm enough to con- 
ceive and bring forth flowers, and she was now making the 
most of the little maternity vouchsafed to her. The air was 
full of winged insects, darting hither and thither in aston- 
ishment at finding themselves alive ; the herbage seemed to 
be visibly growing under your eyes ; even the wild shapes of 
the trees worr expressive of haste, lest the winter might come 
on them unbares; and I noticed that the year's growth had 
been shot o'lt at once, so that the young sprays might have 
time to harden and to protect the next year's buds. There 
was no lush, rollicking out-burst of foliage, no mellow, 
epicurean languor of the woods, no easy unfolding of leaf on 
leaf, as in the long security of our summers ; but everywhere 
a feverish hurry on the p'art of nature to do something, even 
if it should only be half done And above the valley, behind 
its mural ramparts, glowered the cold white snows, which 
had withdrawn for a little while, but lay in wait, ready tc 
spring down as soon as the protecting sunshine should 
fail. 



FINMARK AND HAMMERFEST. 29 i 

The lady had one harmless tumble into the mud, and we 
were all pretty well fatigued with our rough 'walk, when we 
reached the Lapp encampment. It consisted only of two 
families, who lived in their characteristic gammes, or huts 
of earth, which serve them also for winter dwellings. These 
burrows were thrown up on a grassy meadow, beside a rapid 
stream which came down from the fjeld ; and at a little dis- 
tance were two folds, or corrals for their reindeer, fenced 
with pickets slanting outward. A number of brown-haired, 
tailless dogs, so much resembling bear-cubs that at first sight 
we took them for such, were playing about the doors. A 
middle-aged Lapp, with two women and three or four chil- 
dren, were the inmates. They scented profit, and received 
us in a friendly way, allowing the curious strangers to go in 
and out at pleasure, to tease the dogs, drink the reindeer 
milk, inspect the children, rock the baby, and buy horn 
spoons to the extent of their desire. They were smaller than 
the Lapps of Kautokeino— or perhaps the latter appeared 
larger in their winter dresses — and astonishingly dirty. 
Their appearance is much more disgusting in summer than 
in winter, when the snow, to a certain extent, purifies every- 
thing. After waiting an hour or more, the herd appeared 
descending the fjeld, and driven toward the fold by two 
young Lapps, assisted by their dogs. There were about four 
hundred in all, nearly one-third being calves. Their hoarse 
bleating and the cracking noise made by their knee-joints, 
as they crowded together into a dense mass of grey, mossy 
backs, made a very peculiar sound ; and this combined with 
their ragged look, from the process of shedding their coafr 



292 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

of hair, did not very favourably impress those of our part)' 
who saw them for the first time. The old Lapp and his 
boy, a strapping fellow of fifteen, with a ruddy, olive com- 
plexion and almost Chinese features, caught a number of the 
cows with lassos, and proceeded to wean the young deer by 
anointing the mothers' dugs with cow-dung, which they 
carried in pails slung over their shoulders. In this delight- 
ful occupation we left them, and returned to Tromsoe. 

As we crossed the mouth of the Ulvsfjord, that evening 
we had an open sea horizon toward the north, a clear sky, 
and so much sunshine at eleven o'clock that it was evident 
the Polar day had dawned upon us at last. The illumina- 
tion of the shores was unearthly in its glory, and the won- 
derful effects of the orange sunlight, playing upon the dark 
hues of the island cliffs, can neither be told nor painted. 
The sun hung low between Fugloe, rising like a double 
dome from the sea, and the tall mountains of Arnoe, both of 
which islands resembled immense masses of transparent pur- 
ple glass, gradually melting into crimson fire at their bases. 
The glassy, leaden-coloured sea was powdered with a golden 
bloom, and the tremendous precipices at the mouth of the 
Lyngen Fjord, behind us, were steeped in a dark red, mellow 
flush, and touched with pencillings of pure, rose-coloured 
light, until their naked ribs seemed to be clothed in imperial 
velvet. As we turned into the Fjord and ran southward 
along their bases, a waterfall, struck by the sun, fell in fiery 
orange foam down the red walls, and the blue ice-pillars of 
a beautiful glacier filled up the ravine beyond it. We were 
all on deck, and all faces, excited by the divine splendour f 



FINMARK AXD HAMMERFEST. 293 

the scene, and tinged by the same wonderful aureole, shone 
as if transfigured. In my whole life I have never seen a 
spectacle so unearthly beautiful. 

Our course brought the sun rapidly toward the ruby 
cliffs of Arnoe, and it was evident that he would soon bt 
hidden from sight. It Avas not yet half-past eleven, and an 
enthusiastic passenger begged the captain to stop the vessel 
until midnight. " Why," said the latter, " it is midnight 
now, or very near it; you have Drontheim time, which is 
almost forty minutes in arrears." True enough, the real 
time lacked but five minutes of midnight, and those of us 
who had sharp eyes and strong imaginations saw the sun 
make his last dip and rise a little, before he vanished in a 
blaze of glory behind Arnoe. I turned away with my eyes 
full of dazzling spheres of crimson and gold, which danced 
before me wherever I looked, and it was a long time before 
they were blotted out by the semi-oblivion of a daylight 
sleep. 

The next morning found us at the entrance of the long 
Alten Fjord. Here the gashed, hacked, split, scarred and 
chattered character of the mountains ceases, and they sudden- 
ly assume a long, rolling outline, full of bold features, but 
less wild and fantastic. On the southern side of the fjord 
many of them are clothed with birch and fir to the height of 
a thousand feet. The valleys here are cultivated to some 
extent, and produce, in good seasons, tolerable crops of po- 
tatoes, barley, and buckwheat. This is above lat. 70°, or 
parallel with the northern part of Greenland, and conse 
quently the highest cultivated land in the world. In the 
valley of the Alten River, the Scotch fir sometimes reaches 



294 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

a height of seventy or eighty feet. This district is called 
the Paradise of Finmark, and no doubt floats in the iinagi- 
aations of the setters on Mageroe and the dreary Porsanger 
Fjord, as Andalusia and Syria float in ours. It is well thai 
human bliss is so relative in its character. 

At Talvik, a cheerful village with a very neat, prett\ 
church, who should come on board but Pastor Hvoslef, our 
Kautokeino friend of the last winter ! He had been made 
one of a Government Commission of four, appointed to in- 
vestigate and report upon the dissensions between thr 
nomadic Lapps and those who have settled habitations. A 
better person could not have been chosen than this good 
man, who has the welfare of the Lapps truly at heart, and 
in whose sincerity every one in the North confides. 

We had on board Mr. Thomas, the superintendent of the 
copper works at Kaafjord, who had just resigned his seat in 
the Storthing and given up his situation for the purpose of 
taking charge of some mines at Copiapo, in Chili. Mr 
Thomas is an Englishman, who has been for twenty years 
past one of the leading men of Finmark, and no other man, 
I venture to say, has done more to improve and enlighten 
that neglected province. His loss will not be easily re- 
placed. At Talvik, his wife, a pleasant, intelligent Norwe- 
gian lady , came on board ; and, as we passed the rocky por- 
tals guarding the entrance to the little harbour of Kaafjord, 
a gun, planted on a miniature battery above the landing' 
place, pealed forth a salute of welcome. I could partly un- 
derstand Mr. Thomas's long residence in those regions, when 
I saw what a wild, picturesque spot he had chosen for his 
hoTie. The cavernous entrances to the copper mines yawn- 



FINMARK AND HAMMERFEST. 29(3 

ed in the face of the cliff above the outer bay below, on the 
waters edge, stood the smelting works, sun ounded by la- 
bourers' cottages; a graceful white church crowned a rocky 
headland a little further on ; and beyond, above a green 
lawn, decked with a few scattering birches, stood a comforta* 
ble mansion, with a garden in the rear. The flag of Norway 
and the cross of St. George floated from separate staffs on 
the lawn. There were a number of houses, surrounded with 
potato-fields on the slope stretching around the bay, and an 
opening of the hills at its head gave us a glimpse of the fir 
forests of the inland valleys. On such a cloudless day as 
we had, it was a cheerful and home-like spot. 

We took a friendly leave of Mr. Thomas and departed, 
the little battery giving us I don't know how many three- 
gun salutes as we moved off. A number of whales spouted 
on all sides of us as we crossed the head of the fjord to Bose- 
kop, near the mouth of the Alten River. This is a little 
village on a bare rocky headland, which completely shuts 
out from view the rich valley of the Alten, about which the 
Finmarkers speak with so much enthusiasm. " Ah, you 
should see the farms on the Alten," say they ; " there we 
have large houses, fields, meadows, cattle, and the finest 
timber." This is Altengaard, familiar to all the readers of 
Miigge's u Afraja." The gaard, however, is a single large 
estate, and not a name applied to the whole district, as those 
unfamiliar with Norsk nomenclature might suppose. Here 
the Catholics have established a mission — ostensibly a mis- 
sionary boarding-house, for the purpose of acclimating arcti. 
apostles; but the people, who regard it with the greatest 
suspicion and distrust, suspect that the ultimate object is tb/ 



296 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

overthrow of their inherited, venerated, and deeply-rooted 
Lutheran faith. At Bosekop we lost Pastor Hvoslef, and 
took on board the chief of the mission, the Catholic Bishop 
of the Arctic Zone — for I believe his diocese includes Green- 
land, Spitzbergen, and Polar America. Here is a Calmuck 
Tartar, thought I, as a short, strongly-built man, with sal- 
low complexion, deep-set eyes, broad nostrils, heavy mouth, 
pointed chin, and high cheek-bones, stepped on board ; but 
he proved to be a Russian baron, whose conversion cost him 
his estates. He had a massive head, however, in which in- 
tellect predominated, and his thoroughly polished manners 
went far to counteract the effect of one of the most unpre- 
possessing countenances I ever saw. 

M. Gay, who had known the bishop at Paris, at once en- 
tered into conversation with him. A short time afterwards, 
my attention was drawn to the spot where they stood by 
loud and angry exclamations. Two of our Norwegian 
savaits stood before the bishop, and one of them, with a 
face white with rage, was furiously vociferating : " It is not 
true! it is not true ! Norway is a free country !" " In this 
respect, it is not free," answered the bishop, with more cool- 
ness than I thought he could have shown, under such circum- 
stances : " You know very well that no one can hold office 
except those who belong to your State Church — neither a 
Catholic, nor a Methodist, nor a Quaker : whereas in France, 
as 1 have said, a Protestant may even become a minister of 
the Government." " But we do not believe in the Catholic 
faith : — we will have nothing to do with it !" screamed the 
Norwegian. " We are not discussing our creeds," answered 
the bishop • u I say that, though Norway is a free coup^ry, 



FINMARK AND HAMMERFEST. 297 

politically, it does not secure equal rights to all its citizens 
and so far as the toleration of religious beliefs is concerned,, 
it is behind most other countries of Europe." He there* 
upon retreated to the cabin, for a crowd had gathered about 
the disputants, and the deck-passengers pressing aft, seemed 
more than usually excited by what was going on. The 
Norwegian shaking with fury, hissed through his set teeth: 
" How dare he come here to insult our national feeling V 
Yes, but every word was true ; and the scene was only ano- 
ther illustration of the intense vanity of the Norwegians in 
regard to their country. Woe to the man who says a word 
against Norway, though he say nothing but what everybody 
knows to be true ! So long as you praise everything — scen- 
ery, people, climate, institutions, and customs — or keep 
silent where you cannot praise, you have the most genial 
conversation ; but drop a word of honest dissent or censure, 
and you will see how quickly every one draws back into his 
shell. There are parts of our own country where a foreigner 
might make the same observation. Let a Norwegian travel 
in the Southern States, and dare to say a word in objection 
to slavery ! 

There is nothing of interest between Alten and Hammer- 
fest, except the old sea-margins on the cliffs and a small 
glacier on the island of Seiland. The coast is dismally 
bleak and barren. Whales were very abundant; we some- 
times saw a dozen spouting at one time. They were of the 
hump-backed species, and of only moderate size; yet the 
fishery would doubtless pay very well, if the natives had 
enterprise enough to undertake it. I believe, however, there 
is no whale fishery on the whole Norwegian ccast. " The 



<J98 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

desolate hills of Q,valo surmounted by the pointed peak of 
the Tjuve Fjeld, or " Thief Mountain/ 7 — so called because 
it steals so much of the winter sunshine, — announced oui 
approach to Hammerfest, and towards nine o'clock in the 
evening we were at anchor in the little harbour. The sum- 
mer trade had just opened, and forty Russian vessels, which 
had arrived from the White Sea during the previous week 
or two, lay crowded before the large fish warehouses built 
along the water. They were all three-masted schooners the 
main and mizen masts set close together, and with very 
neavy, square hulls. Strong Muscovite faces, adorned with 
magnificent beards, stared at us from the decks, and a jab- 
ber of Russian, Finnish, Lapp, and Norwegian, came from 
the rough boats crowding about our gangways. The north 
wind, blowing to us off the land, was filled with the perfume 
of dried codfish, train oil, and burning whale-" scraps,' 5 with 
which, as we soon found, the whole place is thoroughly satu- 
rated. 

There is one hotel in the place, containing half a dozen 
chambers of the size of a state-room. We secured quarters 
here with a great deal of difficulty, owing to slowness oi 
comprehension on the part of an old lady who had charge 
of the house. The other American, who at first took rooms 
for himself and wife, gave them up again very prudently; 
for the noises of the billiard-room penetrated through the 
thin wooden partitions, and my bed 3 at least, had been slept 
in by one of the codfish aristocracy, for the salty odour was 
so pungent that it kept me awake for a long time. With 
our fare, we had less reason to complain. Fresh salmon, 
arctic ptarmigan, and reindeer's tongue were delicacies which 






FINMAA.K AND HAMMERFEST. 29tJ 

would have delighted any palate, and the wine had really 
Been Bordeaux, although rainy weather had evidently pre- 
vailed during the voyage thence to Hamnierfest. The town 
lies in a deep bight, inclosed by precipitous cliffs, on the 
south-western side of the island, whence the sun, by thi 
time long past his midsummer altitude, was not visible at 
midnight. Those of our passengers who intended returning 
by the Nordkap climbed the hills to get another view of 
him, but unfortunately went upon the wrong summit, so 
that they did not see him after all. I was so fatigued, from 
the imperfect sleep of the sunshiny nights and the crowd of 
new and exciting impressions which the voyage had given 
me, that I went to bed ; but my friend sat up until long 
ast midnight, writing, with curtains drawn. 



300 NORTHERN TRAVEL 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 

Most of the travellers who push as far north as Ham- 
merfest content themselves with one experience of the mid- 
night sun, and return with the same steamer to Drontheim 
A few extend their journey to the North Cape, and, once a 
year, on an average, perhaps, some one is adventurous 
enough to strike across Lapland to Tornea. The steamers, 
nevertheless, pass the North Cape, and during the summer 
make weekly trips to the Varanger Fjord, the extreme 
eastern limit of the Norwegian territory. We were divided 
in opinion whether to devote our week of sunshine to the 
North Cape, or to make the entire trip and see something 
of the northern coast of Europe, but finally decided that the 
latter, on the whole, as being unfamiliar ground, would be 
most interesting. The screw-steamer Gyller (one of Odin's 
horses) was lying in the harbour when we arrived, and was 
to leave in the course of the next night ; so we lost no time 
in securing places, as she had but a small cabin and no 
state-rooms. Nevertheless, we found her very comfortable, 
and in every respect far superior to the English vessels 
which ply between Hull and Christiania. Our fellow 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 301 

travellers were all returning to Drontheim — except three 
Norwegian officers on their way to make an official inspection 
of the fortress of Wardohuus — and the last we saw of them 
was their return, an hour past midnight, from making a 
second attempt to see the sun from the hills. The night 
was somewhat obscured, and I doubt if they were successful. 
When I went on deck on the morning after our depar- 
ture, we were in the narrow strait between the island of 
Mageroe, the northern extremity of which forms the North 
Cape, and the* mainland. On either side, the shores of bare 
bleak rock, spotted with patches of moss and stunted grass, 
rose precipitously from the water, the snow filling up their 
ravines from the summit to the sea. Not a tree nor a 
shrub, nor a sign of human habitation was visible ; there 
was no fisher's sail on the lonely waters, and only the cries 
of some sea-gulls, wheeling about the cliffs, broke the 
silence. As the strait opened to the eastward, a boat ap- 
peared, beating into Kjelvik, on the south-eastern corner 
of the island ; but the place itself was concealed from us 
by an intervening cape. This is the spot which Von Buch 
visited in the summer of 18 07, just fifty years ago, and his 
description would be equally correct at the present day. 
Here, where the scurvy carries off half the inhabitants, — 
where pastors coming from Southern Norway die within a 
year, — where no trees grow, no vegetables come to maturity 
and gales from every quarter of the Tcy Sea beat the last 
faint life out of nature, men will still persist in living, m 
apparent defiance of all natural laws. Yet they have at 
least an excuse for it, in the miraculous provision which 

Providence has made for their food and fuel. The sea and 
14 



302 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

fjords are alive with fish, which are not only a means of 
existence but of profit to them, while the wonderful Gulf 
Stream, which crosses 5000 miles of the Atlantic to die 
upon this Ultima Thule in a last struggle with the Polar 
Sea, casts up the spoils of tropical forests to feed their fires 
Thinis of arctic fishers burning upon their hearths the 
palma of Hayti, the mahogany of Honduras, and the pre- 
cious woods of the Amazon and the Orinoco ! 

In-the spring months, there are on an average 800 vessel* 
on the northern coast, between the North Cape and VadsS, 
with a fishing population of 5000 men on board, whose 
average gains, even at the scanty prices they receive amount 
to $30 apiece, making a total yield of $150,000. It is only 
within a very few years that the Norwegian Government 
has paid any attention to this far corner of the peninsula. 
At present, considering the slender population, the means of 
communication are well kept up during eight months in the 
year, and the result is an increase (perceptible to an old 
resident, no doubt) in the activity and prosperity of the 
country. 

On issuing from the strait, we turned southward into the 
great Porsanger Fjord, which stretches nearly a hundred 
miles into the heart of Lapland, dividing Western from 
Eastern Finmark. Its shores are high monotonous hills, 
half covered with snow, and barren of vegetation except 
patches of grass and moss. If once wooded, like the hills of 
the Alien Fjord, the trees have long since disappeared, and 
now nothing can be more bleak and desolate. The wind 
blew violently from the east, gradually lifting a veil of grey 
clouds from the cold pale sky, and our slow little steamer 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 3(,3 

with jib and fore-topsail set, made somewhat better pro- 
gress. Toward evening (if there is such a time in the arc 
tic summer), w r e reached Kistrand, the principal settle 
ment on the fjord. It has eight or nine houses, scattered 
along a gentle slope a mile in length, and a little red 
church, but neither gardens, fields, nor potato patches. A 
strip of grazing ground before the principal house was yel- 
low with dandelions, the slope behind showed patches of 
brownish green grass, and above this melancholy attempt 
at summer stretched the cold, grey, snow-streaked ridge 
of the hill. Two boats, manned by sea-Lapps, with square 
blue caps, and. long ragged locks of yellow hair fluttering 
in the wind, brought off the only passenger and the mails, 
and we put about for the mouth of the fjord. 

Running along under the eastern shore, we exchanged 
the dreadful monotony through which we had been sailing 
for more rugged and picturesque scenery. Before us rose a 
*wall of dark cliff, from five to six hundred feet in height, 
gaping here and there with sharp clefts or gashes, as if it 
had cracked in cooling, after the primeval fires. The sum 
mit of these cliffs was the average level of the country ; and 
this peculiarity, I found, applies to all the northern shore 
of Finmarkj distinguishing the forms of the capes and 
islands from those about Alten and Hammerfest, w T hich, 
again, are quite different from those of the Lofodens. " On 
returning from Spitzbergen,"saida Hammerfest merchant 
to me, " I do not need to look at chart or compass, when 
I get sight of the coast ; I know, from the formation of the 
cliffs, exactly where I am." There is some general resem- 
blance to the chalk bluffs c/f England, especially abou* 



304 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

Beachy Head, but the rock here appears to be mica slate, 
disposed in thin, vertical strata, with many violent trans- 
verse breaks. 

As we approached the end of the promontory which 
livides the Porsanger from the Laxe Fjord, the rocks be- 
came more abrupt and violently shattered. Huge masses, 
fallen from the summit, lined the base of the precipice, 
which was hollowed into cavernous arches, the home of 
myriads of sea-gulls. The rock of Svaerholtklub, off the 
point, resembled a massive fortress in ruins. Its walls of 
smooth masonry rested on three enormous vaults, the piers 
of which were buttressed with slanting piles of rocky frag- 
ments. The ramparts, crenelated in some places, had moul- 
dered away in others, and one fancied he saw in the rents 
and scars of the giant pile the marks of the shot and shell 
which had wrought its ruin. Thousands of white gulls, 
gone to their nightly roost, rested on every ledge and cornice* 
of the rock ; but preparations were already made to disturb 
their slumbers. The steamer's cannon was directed towards 
the largest vault, and discharged. The fortress shook with 
the crashing reverberation ; " then rose a shriek, as of a city 
sacked" — a wild, piercing, maddening, myriad-tongued cry, 
which still rings in my ears. With the cry, came a rushing 
sound, as of a tempest among the woods ; a white cloud 
burst out of the hollow arch-way, like the smoke of an 
answering shot, and, in the space of a second, the air was 
filled with birds, thicker than autumn leaves, and rang with 
one universal, clanging shriek. A second shot, followed by 
a second outcry and an answering discharge from the other 
caverns, almost darkened the sky. The whirring, rustling 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 305 

and screaming, as the birds circled overhead, or dropped like 
thick scurries of snow-flakes on the water, was truly awful 
There could not have been less than fifty thousand in the 
air at one time, while as many more clung to the face of the 
rock, or screamed from the depth of the vaults. Such an 
indignation meeting I never attended before; but, like many 
others I have heard of, the time for action was passed before 
they had decided what to do. 

It was now eleven o'clock, and Svserholt glowed in fiery 
bronze lustre as we rounded it, the eddies of returning birds 
gleaming golden in the nocturnal sun, like drifts of beech 
leaves in the October air. Far to the north, the sun lay in 
a bed of saffron light over the clear horizon of the Arctic 
Ocean A few bars of dazzling orange cloud floated above 
him, ftnd still higher in the sky, where the saffron melted 
through delicate rose-colour into blue, hung light wreaths of 
vapour, touched with pearly, opaline flushes of pink and 
golden grey. The sea was a web of pale slate-colour, shot 
through and through with threads of orange and saffron, 
from the dance of a myriad shifting and twinkling ripples. 
The air was filled and permeated with the soft, mysterious 
glow, and even the very azure of the southern sky seemed to 
shine through a net of golden gauze. The headlands of this 
deeply-indented coast — the capes of the Laxe and Porsanger 
Fjords, and of Mageroe — lay around us, in different degrees 
of distance, but all with foreheads touched witli supernatural 
glory. Far to the north-east was Nordkyn, the most north. 
em point of the mainland of Europe, gleaming rosily and 
faint in the full beams of the sun, and just as our watches 
denoted milnight the North Cape appeared to the westward 



•J06 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

— a long line of purple bluff, presenting a vertical front oi 
nine hundred feet in height to the Polar Sea. Midway be- 
tween those two magnificent headlands stood the Midnight 
Sun, shining on us with subdued fires, and with the gorgeous 
colouring of an hour for which we have no name, since it is 
neither sunset nor sunrise, but the blended loveliness of both 
— but shining at the same moment, in the heat and splendour 
of noonday, on the Pacific Isles. 

This was the midnight sun as I had dreamed it — as I had 
hoped to see it. 

Within fifteen minutes after midnight, there was a per- 
ceptible increase of altitude, and in less than half an hour 
the whole tone of the sky had changed, the yellow brighten- 
ing into orange, and the saffron melting into the pale ver- 
milion of dawn. Yet it was neither the colours, nor the 
same character of light as we had had, half an hour before 
midnight. The difference was so slight as scarcely to be | 
described; but it was the difference between evening and 
morning. The faintest transfusion of one prevailing tint 
into another had changed the whole expression of heaven 
and earth, and so imperceptibly and miraculously that a 
.lew day was already present to our consciousness. Our 
view of the wild cliffs of Svasrholt, less than two hours be- 
fore, belonged to yesterday, though we had stood on deck, in 
full sunshine, during all the intervening time. Had the 
ensation of a night slipped through our brains in the 
momentary winking of the eyes ? Or was the old routine 
of consciousness so firmly stereotyped in our natures, that 
the view of a morning was sufficient proof to them of the 
pre"xistcnce of a night ? Let those explain the phenomenon 



THE MIDNIGHT SUN. 30/ 

who can — but I found my physical senses utterly at wai 
with those mental perceptions wherewith they should har- 
monise. The eye saw but one unending day; the mind 
notched the twenty-four hours on its calendar, as before. 

Before oiie o'clock we reached the entrance of the Kiol- 
lefjord, which in the pre-diluvial times must have been 
a tremendous mountain gorge, like that of Gondo, on the 
Italian side of the Simplon. Its mouth is about half a mile 
in breadth, and its depth is not more than a mile and a half. 
It is completely walled in with sheer precipices of bare rock, 
from three to five hundred feet in height, except at the very 
head, where they subside into a stony heap, upon which some 
infatuated mortals have built two or three cabins. 4s we 
neared the southern headland, the face of which was touched 
with the purest orange light, while its yawning fissures lay 
in deep-blue gloom, a tall ruin, with shattered turrets and 
►crumbling spires, detached itself from the mass, and stood 
alone at the foot of the precipice. This is the Fimikirka, 
or " Church of the Lapps," well known to all the northern 
coasters. At first it resembles a tall church with a massive 
square spire : but the two parts separate again, and you have 
a crag-perched castle of the middle-ages, with its watch- 
tower — the very counterpart of scores in Germany—and a 
quaint Gothic chapel on the point beyond. The vertical 
strata of the rock, worn into sharp points at the top and 
gradually broadening to the base, with numberless notched 
ornaments and channels fluted by the rain, make the resem 
lance marvellous, when seen under the proper effects oi light 
Hid ahade. The lustre in which we saw it had the effect oi 



308 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

enchantment. There was a play of colours upon it, such ae 
one sees in illuminated Moorish halls, and I am almost afraid 
to say how much I was enraptured by a scene which has not 
its equal on the whole Norwegian coast, yet of which none 
of us had ever heard before. 

We landed a single passenger — a government surveyor ap- 
parently — on the heap of rocks beyond, and ran out under 
the northern headland, which again charmed us with a glory 
peculiarly its own. Here the colours were a part of the sub- 
stance of the rock, and the sun but heightened and harmon- 
ised their tones. The huge projecting mas^s of pale yel- 
low had a mellow gleam, like golden chalk ; behind them 
were cliffs, violet in shadow ; broad strata of soft red, tipped 
on the edges with vermilion ; thinner layers, which shot up 
vertically to the height of four or five hundred feet, and 
striped the splendid sea-wall with lines of bronze, orange, 
brown, and dark red, while great rents and breaks inter- 
rupted these marvellous frescoes with their dashes of 
uncertain gloom. I have seen many wonderful aspects of 
nature, in many lands, but rock-painting such as this I never 
beheld. A part of its effect may have been owing to atmos- 
pheric conditions which must be r ire, even in the North ; 
but, without such embellishments, I think the sight of this 
coast will nobly repny any one for continuing his voyage 
beyond Hammerfest. 

We lingered on deck, as \ oint after point revealed some 
change in the dazzling diorama, uncertain which was finest, 
and whether something still grander might not be in store. 
But at last Nordkyn drew nigh, and at three o'clock the 



IHK MIDNIGHT SUN. 309 

light became that of day, white and colourless. The north- 
east wind blew keenly across the Arctic Ocean, and we 
were both satisfied and fatigued enough to go to bed. It 
was the most northern point of our voyage — about 71° 20V 
which is further north than I ever was 1 efore, or ever wish 
tc be again. 
14* 



310 



NORTH KRN TRAVKL. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE VARANGER FJORD. ARCTIC LIFE. 

When we awoke, after six hours' sleep, with curtains 
drawn to keep out the daylight, our steamer was deep in 
the Tana Fjord, which receives the waters of the Tana 
River, the lagest Lapland stream flowing into the Arctic 
Ocean. The greater part of the day was consumed in calling at 
two settlements of three houses each, and receiving and 
delivering mails of one letter, or less. The shores of this 
fjord are steep hills of bare rock, covered with patches of 
snow to the water's edge. The riven walls of cliff, with 
their wonderful configuration and marvellous colouring, 
were left behind us, and there was nothing of the grand or 
picturesque to redeem the savage desolation of the scenery 
The chill wind, blowing direct from Nova Zembla, made us 
shiver, and even the cabin saloon was uncomfortable with • 
out a fire. After passing the most northern point of 
Europe, the coast falls away to the south-east, so that on 
the second night we were again in the latitude of Hammer- 
fest, but still within the sphere of perpetual sunshine. Our 
second night of sun was not so rich in colouring as the first, 
yet we remained on deck long enough to see the orb rise 



THE VARANGER FJORD.— ARCTIC UFE. 3] \ 

again from his lowest dip, and change evening into morning 
by the same incomprehensible process. There was no golden 
transfiguration of the dreadful shore; a wan lustre played 
over the rocks — pictures of eternal death — like a settled 
pallor of despair on Nature's stony face. 

One of the stations on this coast, named Makur, consisted 
of a few fishermen's huts, at the bottom of a dismal rocky 
bight. There was no grass to be seen, except some tufts 
springing from the earth with which the roofs were covered, 
and it was even difficult to see where so much earth had 
been scraped together. The background was a hopelessly 
barren hill, more than half enveloped in snow. And this 
was midsummer — and human beings passed their lives 
here! " Those people surely deserve to enter Paradise 
when they die," I remarked to my friend, " for they live in 
hell while upon earth." a Not for that," he answered, " but 
because it is impossible for them to commit sin. They 
cannot injure their neighbours, for they have none. They 
cannot steal, for there is nothing to tempt them. They 
cannot murder, for there are none of the usual incentives 
to hate and revenge. They have so hard a struggle merely 
to live, that they cannot fall into the indulgences of sense; 
so that if there is nothing recorded in their favour, there is 
also nothing against them, and they commence the next life 
with blank books." 

"But what a life!" I exclaimed. "Men maybe happy 
in poverty, in misfortune, under persecution, in life-long 
disease even, so that they are not wholly deprived of the. 
venial influences of society and Nature — but what is there 
here? 1 ' "They know no other world/' said he, "'and thir 



312 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

ignorance keeps them from being miserable They do no 
more thinking than is necessary to make nets and boats, 
catch fish and cook them, and build their log-houses. 
Nature provides for their marrying and bringing up their 
\hildren, and the pastor, whom they see once in a long 
time, gives them their religion ready made." God keep 
them ignorant, then ! was my involuntary prayer. May 
they never lose their blessed stupidity, while they are 
chained to these rocks and icy seas ! May no dreams of 
summer and verdure, no vision of happier social condi- 
tions, or of any higher sphere of thought and action, flash 
a painful light on the dumb- darkness of their lives ! 

The next day, we were in the Varanger Fjord, having 
passed the fortress of Vardohuus and landed our military 
committee. The Norwegian shore was now low and tame, 
but no vegetation, except a little brown grass, was to be 
seen. r l he Russian shore, opposite, and some twenty-five 
or thirty miles distant, consisted of high, bold hills, which, 
through a glass, appeared to be partially wooded. The 
Varanger Fjord, to which so important a political interest 
has attached within the last few years, is about seventy 
miles in depth, with a general direction towards the south- 
west. The boundary-line between Norwegian and Russian 
Finmark strikes it upon the southern side, about half-way 
from the mouth, so that ihree- fourths, or more, of the waters 
of the fjord belong to Norway. There is. however, a won- 
derful boundary-line, in addition, drawn by Nature between 
the alien waters. That last wave of the Gulf Stream which 
washes the North Cape and keeps the fjords of Finmark 
open and unfrozen the whole year through, sweeps east 



THE VARAXGER FJORD. — ARCTIC LIFE. 313 

ward along the coast, until it reaches the head of Varangei 
Fjord. Here its power is at last spent, and from this 
point commences that belt of solid ice which locks up the 
harbours of the northern coast of Russia for six months in 
the year. The change from open water to ice is no less 
abrupt than permanent. Pastor Hvoslef informed me that 
in crossing from Vadso, on the northern coast, to Pasvik, 
the last Norwegian settlement; close upon the Russian fron- 
tier, as late as the end of May, he got out of his boat upon 
the ice, and drove three or four miles over the frozen sea. tc 
reach his destination. 

The little fort of Vardohuus, on an island at the northern 
entrance of the fjord, is not a recent defence, meant to check 
Russian plans in this quarter. It was established by Chris- 
tian IV. nearly two and a half centuries ago. The king 
himself made a voyage hither, and no doubt at that time 
foresaw the necessity of establishing, by military occupation, 
the claims of Denmark to this part of the coast. The little 
fortress has actually done this service ; and though a single 
frigate might easily batter it to pieces, its existence has kept 
Russia from the ownership of the Varanger Fjord and the 
creation (as is diplomatically supposed.) of an immense naval 
station, which, though within the Arctic waters, would at 
all times of the year be ready for service. It is well known 
tfiat Russia has endeavoured to obtain possession of the 
northern side of the fjord, as well as of the Lyngen Fjord, 
near Tromso, towards which her Lapland territory stretchy 
out a long arm. England is particularly suspicious of these 
attempts, and the treaty recently concluded between the 
Allied Powers and Sweden had a special reference thereto 



3]4 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

The importance of such an acquisition to Russia is too ol> 
yious to be pointed out, and the jealous watchfulness oi 
England is, therefore, easy to understand. But it is a 
singular thing that the conflicting forces of Europe find a 
fulcrum on a little corner of this dead, desolate, God-for- 
saken shore. 

About ten o'clock we reached Vadso, the limit of the 
steamer's route. Here we had intended taking a boat, con- 
tinuing our voyage to Nyborg, at the head of the fjord, 
crossing thence to the Tana, and descending that river in 
season to meet the steamer in the Tana Fjord on her return. 
We were behind time, however, and the wind was light; the 
people informed us that we could scarcely carry out the pro- 
ject; so we reluctantly gave it up, and went ashore to spend 
the day. Vadso is a town of about 800 inhabitants, with a 
secure though shallow harbour, which was crowded with 
fishing vessels and Russian traders from the White Sea. It 
lies on the bleak hill-side, without a tree or bush, or a 
patch of grass large enough to be seen without close inspec- 
tion, and its only summer perfume is that of dried fish. I 
saw in gardens attached to one or two houses a few coura- 
geous radishes and some fool-hardy potatoes, which had ven* 
tured above ground without the least chance of living long 
enough to blossom. The snow had been four feet deep in 
the streets in the beginning of June, and in six weeks it 
would berin to fall ao*ain. A few forlorn cows were hunt- 

o o 

ing pasture over the hills, now and then looking with mel- 
ancholy resignation at the strings of codfish heads hanging 
up to dry, on the broth of which they are fed during the 
winter. I took a walk and made a sketch during the after 



THE VARANGER FJORD.— ARCTIC LIFE. 315 

noon, but the wind was so chill that I was glad to come back 
Bhivering to our quarters. 

We obtained lodgings at the house of a baker, named Aas, 
who had learned the art of charging, and was therefore com 
petent to conduct a hotel. In order to reach our room, wc 
were obliged to pass successively through the family dwell- 
ing-room, kitchen, and a carpenter's workshop, but our win- 
dows commanded a full view of a grogshop across the way, 
where drunken Lapps were turned out with astonishing 
rapidity. It was the marriage month of the Lapps, and the 
town was full of young couples who had come down to be 
joined, with their relatives and friends, all in their gayest 
costumes. Through the intervention of the postmaster, I 
procured two women and a child, as subjects for a sketch, 
They were dressed in their best, and it was impossible not 
to copy the leer of gratified vanity lurking in the corners of 
their broad mouths. The summer dress consisted of a loose 
gown of bright green cloth, trimmed on the neck and sleeves 
with bands of scarlet and yellow, and a peculiar head-dress, 
shaped like a helmet, but with a broader and flatter crest, 
rounded in fron « This, also, was covered with scarlet cloth, 
and trimmed with yellow and blue. They were greatly 
gratified with the distinction, and all the other Lapps, as in 
Kautokeino, would have willingly offered themselves. I 
found the same physical characteristics here as there — a 
fresh, ruddy complexion, inclining to tawny; bright blue 
eyes, brown hair, high cheek bones, and mouths of enormous 
width. They are not strikingly below the average size 
Heine says, in one of his mad songs : 



31 1 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

" In Lapland the people are dirty, 

Flat-headed, and broad-mouthed, and small 
They squat round the fire while roasting 
Their fishes, and chatter and squall ;" 

which is as good a description of them as can be packed intc 
a stanza. On the present occasion they were all drunk, in 
addition. One of them lay for a long time at the door, with 
his legs doubled under him as he fell, the others stepping 
over his body as they went in and out. These poor creatures 
were openly and shamelessly allowed to drug themselves, 
as long as their money lasted. No wonder the race is be- 
coming extinct, when the means of destruction is so freely 
offered. 

Vadso, although only forty miles from Vardo, at the 
mouth of the fjord, has a much drier and more agreeable 
climate, and the inhabitants are therefore loud in praise of 
their place. " We have no such fogs as at Vardo," say 
they; "our fish dry much better, and some years we can 
raise potatoes." For the last four or five years, however, 
the winters have been getting more and more severe, and 
now it is impossible to procure hay enough to keep their 
few cattle through the winter. We had on board a German 
who had been living there five years, and who appeared well 
satisfied with his lot. " I have married here," said he ; " I 
make a good living with less trouble than in Germany, and 
have no wish to return. ,; Singularly enough, there were 
also two Italian organ grinders on board, whom I accosted 
in their native language ; but they seemed neither surprised 
nor particularly pleased. They dropped hints of having 
been engaged in some political conspiracy ; and one of their 



THE VARANGER FJORD — ARCTIC L. FE. 317 

said, with a curious mixture of Italian and Norsk words 
u Jeg voglio ikke ritornare" I said the same thing (" I 
shall not return 7 ') as I left Vadso. 

We sailed early the next morning, and in the afternoon 
reached Vardo, where we lay three hours. Here we took 
on board the three officers, who had in the meantime made 
their inspection. Vardohuus is a single star-shaped fort, 
with six guns and a garrison of twenty-seven men. During 
the recent war, the garrison was increased to three hundred — 
an unnecessary precaution, if there was really any danger of 
an attack to be apprehended, so long as the defences of the 
place were not strengthened. One of the officers, who had 
gone out fishing the night previous, caught eighty-three 
splendid cod in the space of two hours. It was idle sport, 
however, for no one would take his fish as a gift, and they 
were thrown on the shore to rot. The difficulty is not in 
catching but in curing them. Owing to the dampness of 
the climate they cannot be hung up on poles to dry slowly, 
like the stock-fish of the Lofodens, but must be first salted 
and then laid on the rocks to dry, whence the term, klip 
(cliff) fish, by which they are known in trade. 

At the mouth of the Tana we picked up four Englishmen, 
who had been salmon fishing on the river. They were sun- 
burnt, spotted with mosquito bites, and had had little luck, 
the river being full of nets and the fjord of seals, between 
which the best of the salmon are either caught or devoured 
jut they spoke of their experience with true English relish. 
Oh, it was very jolly !" said one : " we were so awfully bit- 
ten by mosquitoes. Then our interpreter always lost every- 
thing just before we wanted it — think of his losing ou* 



318 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

frying pan. so that we had to fry in the lids of our kettles; 
He had a habit of falling overboard and getting nearly 
drowned before we could pull him in. We had a rougb 
time of it, but it was very jolly, I assure you !" The young 
fellows meant what they said ; they were all the better for 
their roughing, and I wish the spindle shanked youths who 
polk and flirt at Newport and Saratoga had manliness 
enough for such undertakings. 

We reached Hammerfest on the last day of July, and re- 
occupied our old quarters. That night the sun went below 
the horizon for the first time in eight days, but his depth 
was too slight to make any darkness visible. I was quite 
tired of the unending daylight, and would willingly have 
exchanged the pomp of the arctic midnight for the starlit 
darkness of home. We were confused by the loss of night ; 
we lost the perception of time. One is never sleepy, but 
simply tired, and after a sleep of eight hours by sunshine, 
wakes up as tired as ever. His sleep at last is broken and 
irregular ; he substitutes a number of short naps, distributed 
through the twenty-four hours, for the one natural repose, 
and finally gets into a state of general uneasiness and dis- 
comfort. A Hammerfest merchant, who has made frequent 
voyages to Spitzbergen, told me that in the latitude of 80° 
he never knew certainly whether it was day or night, and 
the cook was the only person on board who could tell him. 

At first the nocturnal sunshine strikes you as being won- 
derfully convenient. You lose nothing of the scenery ; you 
san read and write as usual; you never need be in a hurry 
because there is time enough for everything It is no* 
necessary to do your day's work in the daytime, for no nigh* 



THE VARANGER FJORD.— ARCTIC LIFE. 31 S 

cometh. You are never belated, and somewhat of the stress 
of life is lifted from your shoulders ; but, after a time, you 
would be glad of an excuse to stop seeing, and observing, and 
thinking, and even enjoying. There is no compulsive rest 
such as darkness brings — no sweet isolation, which is the 
best refreshment of sleep. You lie down in the broad day, 
and the summons, u Arise !" attends on every re-opening of 
your eyes. I never went below and saw my fellow-passengers 
all asleep around me without a sudden feeling that some- 
thing was wrong : they were drugged, or under some unna- 
tural influence, that they thus slept so fast while the sunshine 
streamed in through the port-holes. 

There are some advantages of this northern summer which 
have presented themselves to me in rather a grotesque light. 
Think what an aid and shelter is removed from crime — how 
many vices which can only flourish in the deceptive atmos* 
phere of night, must be checked by the sober reality of day 
light ! No assassin can dog the steps of his victim ; nc 
burglar can work in sunshine; no guilty lover can hold 
stolen interviews by moonlight — all concealment is removed, 
for the sun, like the eye of God, sees everything, and the 
secret vices of the earth must be bold indeed, if they can 
bear his gaze. Morally, as well as physically, there is safety 
in light and danger in darkness; and yet give me the dark- 
ness and the danger ! Let the patrolling sun go off his beat 
for awhile, and show a little confidence in my ability to 
behave properly, rather than worry me with his sleepless 
vigilance. 

I have described the smelta of Hammerfest, which are its 
principal characteristic. It seemed to me the dreariest plac* 



320 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

in the world on first landing, a week previous ; but, by <x n- 
trast with what we had in the meantime seen, it became 
rather cheerful and comfortable. I was visiting a merchant 
after our return, and noticed with pleasure a stunted ash 
about eight feet high, in an adjoining garden. " Ch !" said 
he, in a tone of irritated pride, " we have plenty of trees 
here ; there is quite a forest up the valley." This forest, 
after some search, I found. The trees were about six feet 
high, and some of them might have been as thick. as my 
wrist. In the square before the merchant's house lay a crowd 
of drunken Lapps, who were supplied with as much bad 
brandy as they wanted by a licensed grog-shop. The Rus- 
sian sailors made use of the same privilege, and we frequently 
Aeard them singing and wrangling on board their White Sea 
junks. They were unapproachably picturesque, especially 
after the day's work was over, when they generally engaged 
in hunting in the extensive forests of their beards, and 
exercised the law of retaliation on all the game they caught. 
A long street of turf-roofed houses, whose inhabitants may 
be said to be under the sod even before they die, leads along 
the shore of the bay to a range of flakes redolent of drying 
codfish. Beyond this you clamber over rocks and shingles 
to a low grassy headland, whereon stands a pillar commem- 
orating the measurement of a meridian line of 25° 20', from 
the Danube to the Polar Sea, which was accomplished by 
the Governments of Austria, Russia, and Sweden, between 
he years 1816 and 1852. The pillar marks the northern 
terminus of the line, and stands in lat. 70° 40' 11*3". It 
is a plain shaft of polished red granite, standing on a base 
of grey granite, and surmounted by a bronze globe, on which 
% map of the earth is roughly outlined. 



THE RETURN TO DARKNESS.— NORWEGIAN CHARACTER, 321 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE RETURN TO DARKNESS. NORWEGIAN CHARACTER. 

I do not intend to trace our return, step by step, down the 
Norwegian coast. The splendid weather which prevailed 
during our upward voyage, enabled us to see all the interest- 
ing points, leaving only those parts which we missed in the 
few hours devoted to sleep, to give a little novelty to our 
return. During the whole trip we had not a drop of rain, 
— the rarest good fortune in these latitudes, — and were 
therefore twice enabled to enjoy, to the fullest extent, the 
sublime scenery of the Lofoden Isles and the coast of Nord- 
land. This voyage has not its like in the world. The 
traveller, to whom all other lands are familiar, has here a 
new volume of the most wonderful originality and variety, 
opened to him. The days are illuminated pages, crowded 
with pictures, the forms and hues of which he can never 
forget. After I returned to the zone of darkness, and recov- 
ered from the stress and tension of three weeks of daylight, 
1 first fully appreciated the splendours of the arctic sun 
My eyes were still dazzled with the pomp of colour, and th 
uhousand miles of coast, as I reviewed them in memory, witt 
their chaos of island-pyramids of shattered rock, their colos- 



322 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

sal cliffs, their twis:ed fjords, and long fjeld-levels of eternal 
snow, swam in a sea of saffron and rosy light, in comparison 
with which the pale blue day around me seemed dull and 
dead. My dream of the North, in becoming a reality, hag 
retained the magical atmosphere of dreams, and basks in the 
same gorgeous twilight which irradiates the Scandinavian 
sagas. 

1 was particularly struck during the return, with the 
rapid progress of summer — the flying leaps with which she 
clears her short course. Among the Lofodens, the potatoes 
were coming into blossom, and the rye and barley into head; 
the grass was already cut, in many places, and drying on 
poles, and the green of the woods and meadows showed the 
dark, rich character of southern lands. Owing to tfeis ra- 
pidity of growth, all the more hardy varieties of vegetables 
may be successfully cultivated. Mr. Thomas informed me 
that his peas and beans at Kaafjord (lat. 70° N.) grew three 
inches in twenty-four hours, and, though planted six weeks 
later than those about Christiania, came to maturity at the 
same time. He has even succeeded in raising excellent 
cauliflowers. But very few of the farmers have vegetable 
gardens, and those which I saw contained only radishes and 
lettuce, with a few useful herbs. One finds the same pas- 
sion for flowers, however, as in Northern Sweden, and the 
poorest are rarely without a rose or a geranium in their 
windows. 

Pastor Hvoslef, who was again our fellow-traveller for a 
few hours, gave me some interesting information concerning 
the Lapps. They are, it seems, entitled to the right of suf- 
frage, and to representation in the Storthing, equally with 



THE KETURN TO DARKNESS. — NORWEGIAN CHARACTER 323 

the Norwegians. The local jurisdiction repeats on a small 
scale what the Storthing transacts on a large one, being en- 
tirely popular in its character, except that the vogts and 
luiismen (whose powers are somewhat similar to those of 
our judges and country magistrates) are not elected. But 
each district chooses from among its inhabitants a commit- 
tee to confer upon and arrange all ordinary local matters. 
These committees, in turn, choose persons to constitute a 
higher body, who control the reciprocal relations of the sev- 
eral districts, and intervene in case of difficulties between 
them. The system is necessarily simpler and somewhat 
more primitive in its character than our local organisations 
in America ; but it appears at present to answer every pur- 
pose. The heavy responsibility resting upon judges in Nor- 
way — the severity of the checks and penalties by which their 
proMty is insured — probably contributes to make the ad- 
ministration of the laws more efficacious and easy. The 
Lapps are not a difficult people to govern, and much of the 
former antagonism between them and the poorer classes of 
the Norwegians has passed away. There is little, if any, 
amalgamation of the two races, nor will there ever be, but 
there is probably as little conflict between them as is com- 
patible with the difference of blood. 

At Tromsoe, a tall, strong, clerical gentleman came on 
board, who proved to be the noted Pastor Lamers, one of 
the first if not the very first clergyman in Norway, who has 
refused to receive the government support — or, in other 
words, has seceded from the Church, as a State establish- 
ment, while adhering to all its fundamental doctrines. It is 
the first step towards the separation of Church and State^ 



324 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

which must sooner or later come, in Norway and in Sweden 
He has a congregation of three hundred members, in Trom« 
soe, and is about organising a church at Gibostad, on the 
island of Senjen. He has some peculiar views, I believe, in 
elation to the baptism of children, and insists that the 
usual absolution dealt out by the Pastors is of no effect 
without full confession and the specification of particular 
gijos — but in other respects he is entirely orthodox, retaining 
even the ceremonial of the Eucharist. This, in the Luther- 
an church of Norway, comes so near to the Roman Catholic 
doctrine of transubstantiation, that one cannot easily per- 
ceive any difference. Instead of bread, an unleavened wafer 
is administered to the communicants, the priest saying, as 
he gives it, Ci This is the true body and blood of Jesus 
Christ." Mr. Forrester, a devout admirer of the Church, 
which he thinks identical with that of England in all its 
essentials, says, " The Lutherans reject the Romish doctrine 
of transubstantiation, but they hold that of a spiritual and 
ineffable union of the divine nature with the elements, the 
substance of which remains unchanged. This is called con- 
substantiation" Verily, the difference between tweedledum 
and tweedledee — one being as absurd as the other. 

No one, coming from a land where all sects stand upon 
an equal footing, and where every church must depend for 
existence on its own inherent vitality, can fail to be struck 
with the effete and decrepit state of religion in Sweden and 
Norway. It is a body of frigid mechanical forms and cere- 
monies, animated here and there with a feeble spark of spir- 
itual life, but diffusing no quickening and animating glow 
[ have often been particularly struck with the horror with 



THE RETURN TO DARKNESS.— NORWEGIAN CHARACTER. 325 

which the omission of certain forms was regarded by per- 
sons in whom I could discover no trace of any religious 
principle. The Church has a few dissensions to combat ; 
she has not been weakened by schism ; but she is slowly ossi- 
fying from sheer inertia. The Reformation needs to be re- 
formed again, and perhaps the tardy privileges granted to 
the Haugianer and Ldsare — the northern Methodists — may 
result in producing a body of Dissenters large enough to ex- 
cite emulation, action, and improvement. In Norway, the 
pastors have the best salaries and the easiest places of all 
government officials. Those who conscientiously discharge 
their duties have enough to do ; but were this universally 
the case, one would expect to find the people less filthy, 
stupid, and dishonest than they are in many parts of the 
country. A specimen of the intelligence of one, who is now 
a member of the Storthing, was communicated to me by a 
gentleman who heard it. The clergyman advocated the 
establishment of telegraph lines in Norway, "not for the 
sake of sending news," said he, " that is of no consequence. 
But it is well known that no wolf can pass under a tele- 
graph wire, and if we can get lines put up throughout the 
country, all the wolves will be obliged to ]eave l" Of course, 
I do not mean to assert that the Norwegian clergymen, as a 
body, are not sincere, zealous, well-informed men. The evil 
lies rather in that system which makes religion as much a 
branch of government service as law or diplomacy ; and 
which, until very recently, has given one sect an exclusive 
monopoly of the care of human souls. 

1 had a 3trong desire to converse with Pastor Lamers in 

relation to the stand he has taken, but he was surrounded bv 
15 



326 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

a crowd of persons during his stay on board, and no oppor- 
tunity presented itself. The sensation which his presence pro- 
duced, showed that there are restless elements at work in the 
mind of the people. The stony crust is beginning to heave 
and split at last. Even the deck-passengers gathered into 
little groups and talked earnestly. Two gentlemen near me 
were discussing the question of an Established Church, one 
contending, that a variety of sects tended only to confuse, 
perplex^ and unchristianise the uneducated, unthinking class, 
while the other asserted that this very class adhered most 
tenaciously to whatever faith had been taught them. At 
this moment a woman standing near us exclaimed : " There 
were false prophets in all times, and there are false prophets 
now ! We must beware of them !" — the earnestness of her 
speech affording a good comment on the argument just pro- 
duced. Whatever may be the popular opinion concerning 
the course of Pastor Lamers, I could not but notice the 
marked respect displayed by every one who approached him. 
In passing Hindoe, we saw two magnificent golden eagles 
wheeling around one of the loftiest cliffs. The wind blew 
strongly from the south-west, increasing until we had what 
sailors call a dry gale in crossing the West Fjord, but it 
abated the next day and by the late twilight we recrossed 
the arctic circle. This night there was great rejoicing on 
board, at the discovery of a star. We had not seen one for 
a month, and some of the passengers coming from Finmark 
had been more than two months in daylight. While we 
were all gazing upon it as upon some extraordinary phe- 
nomenon, a flood of yellow 1 amp-light suddenly streamed 
through the cabin skylight. The sky was still brilliant 



THE RETURN TO DARKNESS.— NORWEGIAN CHARACTER. 327 

»vith sunset in the north, but it was dark enough to see to 
3leep. We could not yet cover ourselves all over, even as 
with x cloak ; still there was a shelter and friendly covering 
for the helpless body Our sleep became sound and regular 
and its old power of restoration was doubly sweet, since w 
had known what it was to be deprived of it. 

Our fellow-passengers, after leaving Carlsoe, where the 
young Englishmen stopped to hunt, were almost exclusively 
Norwegian, and this gave us further opportunities of be- 
coming acquainted with some peculiarities of the national 
character. Intelligent Norwegians, especially those who 
have travelled, are exceedingly courteous, gentlemanly, and 
. agreeable persons. The three officers on board were men of 
unusual intelligence and refinement, and we considered our- 
selves fortunate in having their company during the entire 
voyage. The landhaud hire, or country merchants, and 
government officials of the lower ranks, exhibit more reserve, 
and not unfrequently a considerable amount of ignorance 
and prejudice. Perhaps the most general feature of the 
Norwegian character is an excessive national vanity, which 
is always on the alert, and fires up on the slightest provoca- 
tion. Say everything you like, except that Norway in any 
respect is surpassed by any other country. One is assailed 
with questions about his impressions of the scenery, people, 
government, (fee. — a very natural and pardonable curiosity, 
it is true, and one only demands in return that his candour 
be respected, and no offence taken. This, however, is rarely 
the case. If there is no retaliatory answer on the spot, you 
aear a remark days afterwards which shows how your mild 
censure has rankled in the mind of tne hearer. My friend 



328 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

was asked by a passenger whether he did not think the 
women of Finmark very beautiful. It was impossible to 
answer in the affirmative : the questioner went off in high 
dudgeon, and did not speak to him again for several days. 

In the Varanger Fjord, we had pretty freely expressed 
our impressions of the desolate coast. Afterwards on re- 
turning past the grand cliff scenery of Nordkyn, we were 
admiring some bold formation of the rocks, when a Nor- 
wegian came up and said, in a tone of angry irony : " Ah, 
you find a little to admire at last, do you? You find some 
beauty in our country, after all ?" So in regard to the 
government. The Norwegians may be justly proud of their 
constitution, which is as republican in its character as our 
own. There is so much in the administration of the gov- 
ernment which every one must heartly commend, that they 
should be less sensitive in regard to minor faults. This 
sensitiveness, however, is partly accounted for, when we re- 
member that for four hundred years Norway was a Danish 
province, and that only forty-three years ago she leaped at 
once from subjection to a freedom such as no other country 
in Europe enjoys. The intense pride and self-glorification 
of the people resembles that of a youth who for the first 
time assumes a dress-coat and standing collar. King Oscar, 
on bis accession to the throne, gave the country a separate 
national flag, and nowhere does one see such a display of 
flags. All over the land and all along the shores, the colours 
of Norway are flying. 

Jealousy of Sweden and dislike of the Swedes are inher- 
ited feelings, and are kept alive by a mutual prejudice ol 
the part of the latter people. One cannot but smile a little 
at the present union of Sweden and Norway, when he finds 



THE RETURN TO DARKNESS.— NORWEGIAN CHARACTER. 329 

that the countries have separate currencies, neither of which 
will pass at its full value in the other — separate tariffs, and 
of course Custom-house examinations between the two, and, 
if the Norwegians had their way, would have separate diplo- 
matic representatives abroad. Yet the strength of Norway 
is undoubtedly in her alliance with Sweden : alone, she 
would be but a fourth-rate power. Enough has been done 
to satisfy her national feeling and secure her liberties against 
assault, and it is now time that this unnecessary jealousy 
and mistrust of a kindred race should cease. The Swedes 
have all the honesty which the Norwegians claim for them- 
selves, more warmth and geniality of character, and less 
selfish sharpness and shrewdness. Mugge tells a story of a, 
number of Swedes who were at a dinner party in Paris, 
where the health of " the King of Sweden and Norway" was 
proposed and drunk with great enthusiasm. One glass was 
observed to be untouched. It belonged to a Norwegian, who, 
when called upon for an explanation, said : " I cannot drink 
such a toast as this, but I will drink the health of the King 
of Norway, who is also Kino; of Sweden !" 

One cannot find fault with a people for their patriotism. 
I have always admired that love of Gamle Norge which 
shines through Norwegian history, song, and saga — but when 
it is manifested in such ridiculous extremes, one doubts the 
genuineness of the feeling, and suspects it of being alloyed 
with some degree of personal vanity. There are still evils 
to be eradicated, — reproaches to be removed, — reforms to 
be achieved, which claim all the best energies of the best 
men of the country, and positive harm is done by concealing 
or denying the f rue state of things. 



Ci. NORTHERN TRAVJEI, 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

DRONTHIEM AND BERGEN. 

We spent another day and a half in Drot thiem, before 
reshipping in the steamer for Bergen. With the exception 
of a trip to the Lierfoss, or falls of the Nid, however, it 
was by no means a satisfactory sojourn. The hotel was 
full, and we could only get quarters in the billiard-room, 
through which other guests were continually passing and 
repassing. Two small boys were quite inadequate to the 
service; the table d'hote was the scantiest I ever saw, and 
the charges at the rate of three dollars % day. The whole 
of Sunday was consumed in an attempt to recover our car- 
rioles, which we left behind us on embarking for Hammer- 
fest. The servants neglected to get them on Saturday even- 
ing, as we had ordered, and in the morning the man who 
had the key of the warehouse went into the country, taking 
it with him. The whole day was spent in searching and 
waiting, and it was only by unremitting exertions that we 
succeeded in putting them on board in the evening. Owing 
to this annoyance, I was unable to attend service in the 
sathedral, or even to see the inside of it. 

Our drive to the Lierfoss, in the evening, was an exqms 



DRONTHEIM AND BERGEN. 33 J 

ite enjoyment. The valley of the Nid, behind Drontheim, 
is one of the most carefully cultivated spots in Norway. 
Our road led up the stream, overlooking rich levels of grain 
and hay fields, studded with large and handsome farm-houses, 
while the lower slopes of the hills and the mound-like knolla 
scattered along their bases, were framed to the very summit, 
steep as they were. The whole scene was like a piece of 
landscape gardening, full of the loveliest effects, which were 
enhanced by the contrast of the grey, sterile mountains by 
which the picture was framed. The soft, level sunshine, 
streaming through the rifts of broken thunder-clouds in the 
west, slowly wandered over the peaceful valley, here lighting 
up a red-roofed homestead, there a grove in full summer 
foliage, or a meadow of so brilliant an emerald that it seemed 
to shine by its own lustre. As we approached the Lierfoss, 
the road was barred with a great number of gates, before 
which waited a troop of ragged boys, who accompanied 
us the whole of the way, with a pertinacity equal to that 
of the little Swiss beggars. 

The Nid here makes two falls about half a mile apart, 
the lower one being eighty, and the upper one ninety feet in 
height. The water is of a dark olive-green colour, and 
glassy transparency, and so deep that at the brink it makes 
huge curves over the masses of rock in its bed without break- 
ing into the faintest ripple. As you stand on a giant boulder 
above it, and contrast the swift, silent rush with the thun- 
dering volume of amber-tinted spray which follows, you feel 
n its full force the strange fascination of falling water— 
the temptation to plunge in and join in its headlong revelry. 
Here, however, I must admit that the useful is not always 



332 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

the beautiful. The range of smoky mills driven by a sluice 
from the fall had better be away. The upper fall is d.vided 
in the centre by a mass of rock, and presents a broader and 
more imposing picture, though the impetus of the water is 
not so great. 

The coast between Drontheim and Bergen is, on the 
whole, much less striking than that further north ; but it 
has some very grand features. The outer islands are, with 
few exceptions, low and barren, but the coast, deeply indented 
with winding fjovds, towers here and there into sublime 
headlands, and precipitous barriers of rock. Christiansund, 
where we touched the first afternoon, is a singularly pictur- 
esque place, built on four islands, separated by channels in 
the form of a cross. The bare, rounded masses of grey rock 
heave up on all sides behind the houses, which are built 
along the water's edge ; here and there a tree of super!? 
greenness shines against the colourless background, and the 
mountains of the mainland, with their tints of pink and 
purple, complete the picture. The sun was burningly hot 
and the pale-green water reflected the shores in its oily gloss; 
but in severe storms, I was told, it is quite impossible to 
cross from one island to another, and the different parts of 
the town sometimes remain for days in a state of complete 
isolation. I rose very early next morning, to have a view oi 
Molde and the enchanting scenery of the Romsdals-fjord. 
The prosperous-looking town, with its large square houses, 
ts suburban cottages and gardens, on the slope of a leng 
green hill, crowned with woods, was wholly Swiss in its ap- 
pearance, but the luminous morning vapors hovering around 
the Alpine peaks in the east, entirely Lid them from out 



DRONTHEIM AND BERGEN. 333 

view. In this direction lies the famous Romsdal, which 
many travellers consider the grandest specimen of Norwe- 
gian scenery. Unfortunately we could not have visited it 
without taking an entire week, and we were apprehensive 
lest the fine weather, which we had now enjoyed for twenty- 
four days, should come to an end before we at ere done with 
the Bergenstift. It is almost unexampled that travellers 
make the voyage from Drontheim to the Varanger Fjord 
and back without a cloudy day. While we had perpetual 
daylight, the tourists whom we left behind were drenched 
with continual rains. 

Aalesund is another island port, smaller than Christian- 
sund, but fall as picturesque. The intense heat and clear- 
ness of the day, the splendour of the sunshine, which turned 
the grassy patches on the rocks into lustrous velvet, and 
the dark, dazzling blue of the sea belonged rather to 
southern Italy than to Norway. As we approached Bergen, 
however, the sky became gradually overcast, and the even- 
ing brought us clouds and showers. Not far from Aale- 
sund was the castle of Rollo, the conqueror of Normandy 
All this part of the coast is Viking ground : from these 
fjords went forth their piratical dragons, and hither they 
returned, laden with booty, to rest and carouse in their 
strongholds. They were the buccaneers of the north in 
their time, bold, brave, with the virtues which belong to 
courage and hardihood, but coarse, cruel, and brutal. The 
Viking of Scandinavian song is a splendid fellow ; but his 
original, if we may judge from his descendants, was a 
stupid, hard headed, lustful, and dirty giant, whom we should 

rather not have had for a companion. Harold Haarfage; 
15* 



384 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

may have learnt in Constantinople to wash his face, and 
comb his beautiful hair, but I doubt if many of his fol- 
lowers imitated him. Let us hope that Ingeborg changed 
her dress occasionally, and that Balder's temple was not 
full of fleas; that Thorsten Vikingsson placed before his 
guests something better than fladbrdd and rancid butter; 
and that Bjorn and Frithiof acted as honestly toward? 
strangers as towards each other. The Viking chiefs, un- 
doubtedly, must have learned the comfort of cleanliness and 
the delights of good living, but if such habits were 
general, the nation has greatly degenerated since their 
time. 

We stayed on deck until midnight, notwithstanding the 
rain, to see the grand rock of Hornelen, a precipice 1200 
feet high. The clouds lifted a little, and there was a dim, 
lurid light in the sky as our steamer swept under the awful 
cliff. A vast, indistinct mass, reaching apparently to the 
zenith, the summit crowned with a pointed tour, resem- 
bling the Cathedral of Drontheim, and the sides scarred 
with deep fissures, loomed over us. Now a splintered spire 
disengaged itself from the gloom, and stood defined against 
the sky ; lighter streaks marked the spots where portions 
had slid away ; but all else was dark, uncertain, and sub- 
lime. Our friendly captain had the steamer's guns dis- 
charged as we were abreast of the highest part. There 
were no separate echoes, but one tremendous peal of sound; 
prolonged like the note of an organ-pipe, and gradually 
lying away at the summit in humming vibrations. 

Next morning, we were sailing in a narrow strait, he* 
tween perpendicular cliffs, fluted like basaltic pillars. It 



DRONTHEEU AND BERGEN 335 

was raining dismally, but we expected nothing else in the 
neighbourhood of Bergen. In this city the average number 
of rainy days in a year is two hundred. Bergen weather 
has become a by-word throughout the north, and no travel- 
er ventures to hope for sunshine when he turns his face 
thither. " Is it still raining at Bergen ?" ask the Dutch 
skippers when they meet a Norwegian captain. " Yes, blast 
you; is it still blowing at the Texel ?" is generally the re- 
sponse. 

We took on board four or five lepers, on their way to the 
hospital at Bergen. A piece of oil-cloth had been thrown 
over some spars to shield them from the rain, and they sat 
on deck, avoided by the other passengers, a melancholy pic- 
ture of disease and shame. One was a boy of fourteen, up- 
on whose face wart-like excrescences were beginning to ap- 
pear ; while a woman, who seemed to be his mother, was 
hideously swollen and disfigured. A man, crouching down 
with his head between his hands, endeavoured to hide the 
seamed and knotted mass of protruding blue flesh, which 
had once been a human face. The forms of leprosy, ele- 
phantiasis, and other kindred diseases, which I have seen in 
the East, and in tropical countries, are not nearly so horri- 
ble. For these unfortunates there was no hope. Some 
years, more or less, of a life which is worse than death, was 
all to which they could look forward. No cure has yet 
!>een discovered for this terrible disease. There are two 
Qospitals in Bergen, one of which contains about five hun* 
dred patients; while the other, which has recently been 
erected for the reception of cases in the earlier stages, whc 
may be subjected to experimental courses of treatment, has 



336 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

already one hundred. This form of leprosy is supposed to 
be produced partly by an exclusive diet of salt fish, and 
partly by want of personal cleanliness. The latter is the 
most probable cause, and one does not wonder at the result, 
after he has had a little experience of Norwegian filth. It 
is the awful curse which falls upon such beastly habits of 
life. I wish the Norwegians could be made Mussulmen foi 
awhile, for the sake of learning that cleanliness is not only 
next to godliness, but a necessary part of it. I doubt the 
existence of filthy Christians, and have always believed that 
St. Jerome was atrociously slandered by the Italian painters. 
But is there no responsibility resting upon the clergymen of 
the country, who have so much influence over their flocks, 
and who are themselves clean and proper persons? 

Bergen is also, as I was informed, terribly scourged by 
venereal diseases. Certainly, I do not remember a place, 
where there are so few men — tall, strong, and well-made as 
the people generally are — without some visible mark of dis- 
ease or deformity. A physician of the city has recently en- 
deavoured to cure syphilis in its secondary stage, by means 
of inoculation, having first tried the experiment upon him- 
self; and there is now a hospital where this form of treat- 
ment is practised upon two or three hundred patients, with 
the greatest success, as another physician informed me. 1 
intended to have visited it, as well as the hospital for lep- 
ers; but the sight of a few cases, around the door of the 
latter establishment, so sickened me, that I had no courag 
to undertake the task. 

Let me leave these disagreeable themes, and say that Ber- 
gjen is one of the most charmingly picturesque towns in all the 



miOXTHEIM AND BERGEN. 33? 

North. Its name, " The Mountain/' denotes one of its mos 4 
striking features. It is built upon two low capes, which 
project from the foot of a low mountain, two thousand feet 
high, while directly in its rear lies a lovely little lake, about 
three miles in circumference. On the end of the northern 
headland stands the fortress of Berghenhuus, with the tall 
square mass of Walkendorf s Tower, built upon the founda- 
tions of the former palace of King Olaf Kyrre, the founder 
of the city. The narrow harbour between is crowded with 
fishing- vessels, — during the season often numbering from six 
to eight hundred, — and beyond it the southern promontory, 
• quite covered with houses, rises steeply from the water. A 
public grove, behind the fortress, delights the eye with its 
dark-green mounds of foliage ; near it rise the twin towers 
of the German Church, which boasts an age of nearly seven 
hundred years, and the suburbs on the steep mountain-sides 
gradually vanish among gardens and country-villas, which 
are succeeded by farms and grazing fields, lying under the 
topmost ridges of the bare rock. The lake in the rear is 
surrounded with the country residences of the rich merchants 
— a succession of tasteful dwellings, each with its garden and 
leafy arbours, its flowers and fountains, forming a rich frame 
to the beautiful sheet of water. Avenues of fine old lindens 
thread this suburban paradise, and seats, placed at the pro- 
per points, command views of which one knows not the 
loveliest. Everything has an air of ancient comfort, taste, 
and repose. One sees yet, the footsteps of mighty Hansa, 
*ho for three centuries reigned here supreme. The north- 
ern half of Bergen is still called the " German Quarter * 
and there are very few citizens of education who do no! 
speak the language. 



338 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

With one or two exceptions, the streets are rough and 
narrow. There are no quaint peculiarities in the architect 
ture, the houses being all of wood, painted white or some 
light colour. At every door stands a barrel filled with 
water, to be ready in case of fire. Owing to the great num 
ber of fishing-vessels and its considerable foreign trade 
Bergen is a much more lively and bustling place than either 
Christiania or Drontheim. The streets are well populated, 
and the great square at the head of the harbour is always 
thronged with a motley concourse of fishermen, traders, and 
country people. Drunkenness seems to be a leading vice, 
I saw, at least, fifty people, more or less intoxicated, in the 
course of a short walk, one afternoon. The grog-shops, 
however, are rigidly closed at six o'clock on Saturday even- 
ing, and remain so until Monday morning, any violation or 
evasion of the law being severely punished. The same course 
has been adopted here as in Sweden ; the price of brandy has 
been doubled, by restrictions on its manufacture, and every 
encouragement has been afforded to breweries. The beer of 
Christiania is equal in flavour and purity to any in the world, 
and it is now in great demand all over Norway. 

The day after our arrival the sky cleared again, and we 
were favoured with superb weather ; which might well be 
the case, as the people told me it had previously been rain- 
ing every day for a month. The gardens, groves, and lawns 
of velvet turf, so long moistened, now blazed out with splen- 
did effect in the hot August sunshine. "Is there such a 
green anywhere else in the world ?" asked my friend. " If 
anywhere, only in England — but scarcely there/' I was 
obliged to cor fess. Yet there was an acquaintance of mine ir 



DRONTHEIM AND BERGEN. 339 

Bergen, a Hammerfest merchant, who, in this rare climax of 
Bummer beauty, looked melancholy anck dissatisfied. " I 
want to get back to the north," said he, " 1 miss our Arctic 
summer. These dark nights are so disagreeable, that I am 
very tired of them. There is nothing equal to our three 
months of daylight, and they alone reconcile us to the win- 
ter." Who will say, after this, that anything more than the 
fundamental qualities of human nature are the same in all 
climates ? But from the same foundation you may build 
either a Grecian temple or a Chinese pagoda. 

The lions of Bergen are soon disposed of. After you 
have visited the fortress and admired the sturdy solidity of 
Walkendorfs Tower, you may walk into the German church 
which stands open (or did, when we were there), without a 
soul to prevent you from carrying off some of the queer old 
carved work and pictures. The latter are hideous enough 
to be perfectly safe, and the church, though exceedingly 
quaint and interesting, is not beautiful. Then you may 
visit the museum, which contains an excellent collection of 
northern fish, and some very curious old furniture. The 
collection of antiquities is not remarkable; but it should be 
remembered that the museum has been created within the 
last twenty years, and is entirely the result of private taste 
and enterprise. One of the most singular things I saw was 
a specimen (said to be the only one in existence) of a fish 
called the " herring-king/' about twelve feet in length by 
one in thickness, and with something of the serpent in its 
appearance. The old Kraaken has not shown himself for a 
number of years, possibly frightened away by the appear- 
ance of steamers in his native waters. In spite of all thf 



340 NORTHERN TKAYEL. 

testimony which Capell Brooke has collected in favour oi 
his existence, he is fast becoming a myth. 

Bergen, we found, is antiquated in more respects than 
one. On sending for horses, on the morning fixed for our 
lepafture ; we were coolly told that we should have to wait 
twenty-four hours; but after threatening to put the law r in 
force against the skyds-skaffer, he promised to bring them 
by one o'clock in the afternoon. In this city of 30,000 inha- 
bitants, no horses are kept in readiness at the post-station 
but are furnished by farmers somewhere at a distance. In 
the matter of hotels, however, Bergen stands in the front rank 
of progress, rivalling Christiania and Drontheim. The fare 
is not so good, and the charges are equally high. There 
are two little inns, with five or six rooms each, and one 
boarding-house of the same size. We could only get one 
small room, into which all three were packed, at a charge of 
a dollar and a quarter per day; while for two wretched 
meals we paid a dollar and a half each. The reader may 
judge of our fare from the fact that one day our soup was 
raspberry juice and water, and another time, cold beer, fla- 
voured with pepper and cinnamon. Add tough beafsteaks 
swimming in grease and rancid butter, and you have the 
principal ingredients. For the first time in my life I found 
my digestive powers unequal to the task of mastering a ne* 
uational diet. 



A TRIP TO THE V6RING-FOSS 34| 



CHAPTER XXX. 

A TRIP TO THE VORING-FOSS. 

After waiting only five hours, we obtained three horses 
and drove away from Bergen. It was a superb afternoon, 
spotlessly blue overhead, with still bluer water below, and 
hills of dark, velvety verdure throbbing and sparkling in 
the sunshine, and the breezes from off the fjord. We sped 
past the long line of suburban gardens, through the linden 
avenues, which, somehow or other, suggested, to me the 
days of the Hanseatic League, past Tivoli, the Hoboken 
of Bergen, and on the summit of the hill beyond stopped 
to take a parting look at the beautiful city. She sat at the 
foot of her guardian mountain, across the lake, her white 
towers and red roofs rising in sharp relief against the 
purple background of the islands whiJi protect her from 
the sea. In colour, form, and atmospheric effect, the pic- 
ture was perfect. Norway is particularly fortunate in the 
position and surroundings of her three chief cities Bergen 
bears away the palm, truly, but either of them has few 
rivals in Europe. 

Our road led at first over well-cultivated hills dotted 



342 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

with comfortable farmhouses — a rolling, broken country 
enclosed by rugged and sterile groups of hills. After 
some miles we turned northward into a narrow valley 
running parallel to the coast line. The afternoon sun 
shining over the shoulder of the mountain-ridge on out 
left, illuminated with dazzling effect the green pastures in 
the bosom of the valley, and the groves of twinkling birch 
and sombre fir on the opposite slope. I have never seen 
purer tints in the sunshine — never a softer transparency in 
the shadows. The landscape was ideal in its beauty, 
except the houses, whose squalor and discomfort, were real. 
Our first station lay off the road, on a hill. A very 
friendly old man promised to get us horses as soon as pos- 
sible, and his wife set before us the best fare the house 
afforded — milk, oaten shingles, and bad cheese. The 
house was dirty, and the aspect of the family bed, which 
occupied one end of the room, merely divided by boards 
into separate compartments for the parents, children and 
servants was sufficient to banish sleep. Notwithstanding 
the poverty of the place, the old woman set a good value 
upon her choice provender. The horses were soon forth- 
coming, and the man, whose apparent kindness increased 
every moment, said to me, " Have I not done well ? Is it 
not very well that 1 have brought you horses so soon ?" 
I assented cheerfully, but he still repeated the same quec<« 
lions, and I was stupid enough not to discover their mean- 
ing, until he added ; " I have done everything so well, 
that you ought to give me something for it." The naive 
manner of this request made it seem reasonable, and I 
gave him something accordingly, though a little disappoint 



A TRIP TO THE V6RING-FOSS. 343 

ed, for I had congratulated myself on finding at last a 
friendly and obliging skyds-skaffer (Postmaster) in Norway 
Towards evening we reached a little village on the shore 
of the Osterfjord. Here the road terminated, and a water 
station of eighteen miles in length lay before us. The 
fjords on the western coast of Norway are narrow, shut in 
by lofty and abrupt mountains, and penetrate far into the 
land — frequently to the distance of a hundred miles. The 
general direction of the valleys is parallel to the line of the 
coast, intersecting the fjords at nearly a right angle, so that 
they, in connection with these watery defiles, divide the 
mountains into immense irregular blocks, with very pre- 
cipitous sides and a summit table-land varying from two to 
four thousand feet above the sea level. For this reason 
there is no continuous road in all western IN or way, but 
alternate links of land and water — boats and post-horses. 
The deepest fjords reach very nearly to the spinal ridge of 
the mountain region, and a land-road from Bergen to this 
line would be more difficult to construct than any of the 
great highways across the Alps. In proportion to her pop- 
ulation and means, Norway has done more for roads than 
any country in the world. Not only her main thorough- 
fares, but even her by-ways, give evidence of astonishing 
skill, industry, and perseverance. The Storthing has re- 
cently appropriated a sum of $188,000 for the improvemerfc 
of roads, in addition to the repairs which the farmers ar 
obliged to make, and which constitute almost their only tax, 
as there is no assessment whatever upon landed property. 
There seems a singular incongruity, however, in finding such 
an evidence of the highest civilization, in connection with the 
semi-barbaric condition of the people. Generally, the \v?.> 



^44 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

provenient of the means of communication in a country is 
in the ratio of its social progress. 

As we were obliged to wait until morning: before com 
mencing our voyage, we set about procuring supper and 
lodging. Some dirty beds in a dirty upper room consti- 
tuted the latter, but the former was a doubtful affair. The 
landlord, who persisted in calling me "Dock," made a 
foraging excursion among the houses, and, after some time ; 
laid before us a salted and smoked leg of mutton, some ran- 
cid butter, hard oaten bread, and pestilential cheese. I ate 
as a matter of duty towards my body, but my companions 
were less conscientious. We deserve no credit for having 
risen early the next morning, neither was there any self-de- 
nial in the fact of our being content with a single cup of 
coffee. The boatmen, five in number, who had been engaged 
the evening before, took our carrioles apart and stowed them 
in the stern, while we three disposed ourselves very uneasily 
in the narrow bow. As we were about pushing off, one of 
the men stepped upon a stone and shouted in a loud voice, 
" Come and help us, fairies !" — whereat the others laughed 
heartily. The wind was against us, but I thought the men 
hugged the shore much more than was necessary. I noticed 
the same thing afterwards, and spoke of it, but they stated 
that there were strong currents in these fjords, setting to- 
wards the sea. The water, in fact, is but slightly brackish, 
and the ebb and flow of the tides is hardly felt. 

The scenery in the Osterfjord is superb. Mountains, 
2000 feet high, inclose and twist it between their interlock- 
ing bases. Cliffs of naked rock overhang it, and cataracts 
fall into it in long zigzag chains of foam. Here and tW* 



A TRIP TO THE VoRING-FOSS. 345 

a rrttle embayed dell rejoices with settlement and cultivation, 
and even on the wildest steeps, where it seems almost im- 
possible for a human foot to find hold, the people scramble 
at the hazard of their lives, to reap a scanty harvest of grass 
for the winter. Goats pasture everywhere, and our boat- 
men took delight in making the ewes follow us along the 
cliffs, by imitating the bleating of kids. Towards noon we 
left the main body of the fjord and entered a narrow arm 
which lay in eternal shadow under tremendous walls of dark 
rock. The light and heat of noonday were tropical in their 
silent intensity, painting the summits far above with dashes 
of fierce colour, while their bases sank in blue gloom to meet 
the green darkness of the water. Again and again the 
heights enclosed us, so that there was no outlet; but they 
opened as if purposely to make way for us, until our keel 
grated the pebbly barrier of a narrow valley, where the land 
road was resumed. Four miles through this gap brought us 
to another branch of the same fjord, where we were obliged 
to have our carrioles taken to pieces and shipped for a short 
voyage. 

At its extremity the fjord narrowed, and still loftier 
mountains overhung it. Shut in by these, like some palmy 
dell in the heart of the porphyry mountains of the Sahara, 
lay Bolstadoren, a miracle of greenness and beauty. A 
mantle of emerald velvet, falling in the softest slopes and 
swells to the water's edge, was thrown upon the valley ; the 
barley had been cut and bound to long upright poles to dry, 
rising like golden pillars from the shaven stubble; and, tc 
crown all, above the landing-place stood a two-story house, 
with a jolly fat landlord smoking in the shade, and half-ar 



346 JNORTHERX TRAVEL. 

dozen pleasant-looking women gossipping in-doors. ' Can 
we get anything to eat?" was the first question. "The 
gentlemen can have fresh salmon and potatoes, and red wine 
if they wish it," answered the mistress. Of course we 
wished it ; we wished for any food clean enough to be eatable, 
and the promise of such fare was like the falling of manna 
n the desert. The salmon,, fresh from the stream, was 
particularly fine ; the fish here is so abundant that the land 
lord had caught 962, as he informed us, in the course of one 
season. 

We had but two miles of land before another sheet of 
water intervened, and our carrioles were again taken to 
pieces. The postillions and boatmen along this route were 
great scamps, frequently asking more than the legal fare, 
and in one instance threatened to prevent us from going on 
unless we paid it. I shall not bore the reader with accounts 
of our various little squabbles on the road, all of which 
tended more and more to convince us, that unless the Nor- 
wegians were a great deal more friendly, kind, and honest 
a few years ago than they are now, they have been more 
over-praised than any people in the world. I must say, 
however, that they are bungling swindlers, and could only 
be successful with the greenest of travellers. The moment 
an imposition is resisted, and the stranger shows himself 
familiar with the true charges and methods of travel, they 
give up the attempt ; but the desire to cheat is only less 
annoying to one than cheating itself. The fees for travel- 
ling by skyds are, it is true, disproportionably low, and in 
many instances the obligation to furnish horses is no doubt 
an actual loss to the farmer. Very often we would have 



A TRIP TO THE VfiRING-FOSS. 



willingly paid a small increase upon the legal rates if it had 
been asked for as a favour ; but when it was boldly demanded 
as a right, and backed by a falsehood, we went not a stiver 
beyond the letter of the law. 

Landing at Evanger, an intelligent landlord, who ha* 1 
(jur brothers in America, gave us return horses to Vosse- 
vangen. and we enjoyed the long twilight of the warm sum- 
mer evening, while driving along the hills which overlook 
the valley connecting the lakes of Vossevangen and Evanger 
It was a lovely landscape, ripe with harvest, and the air full 
of mellow, balmy odours from the flowers and grain. The 
black spire of Vossevangen church, standing dark against 
the dawning moonlight, was the welcome termination of our 
long day's journey, and not less welcome were our clean and 
comfortable quarters in the house of a merchant there. 
Here we left the main road across Norway, and made an 
excursion to the Voring-Foss, which lies beyond the Har- 
danger Fjord, about fifty miles distant, in a south-eastern 
direction. 

Vossevangen, in the splendour of a cloudless morning, was 
even more beautiful than as a moonlit haven of repose. 
The compact little village lay half buried in trees, clustered 
about the massive old church, with its black, pointed tower 
and roof covered with pitched shingles, in the centre of the 
valley, while the mountains around shone bald and bright 
through floating veils of vapour which had risen from the 
fake. The people were all at work in the fields betimes, 
cutting and stacking the barley. The grass-fields, cut 
smooth and close, and of the softest and evenest green, 
seemed kept for show rather than for use. The bottom cf 



348 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

the valley along which we drove, was filled with an un- 
broken pine forest, inclosing here and there a lake, 

" Where Heaven itself, brought down to Earth, 
Seemed fairer than above ;" 

while the opposite mountain rose rich with harvest fields 
and farmhouses. There are similar landscapes betweec 
Fribourg and Vevay, in Switzerland — finer, perhaps, ex- 
cept that all cultivated scenery in Norway gains wonder- 
fully in effect from the savage environment of the barren 
fjelds. Here, cultivation is somewhat of a phenomenon, and 
a rich, thickly settled valley strikes one with a certain sur- 
prise. The Norwegians have been accused of neglecting 
agriculture ; but I do not see that much more could be ex- 
pected of them. The subjugation of virgin soil, as we had 
occasion to. notice, is a serious work. At the best, the grain 
harvests are uncertain, while fish are almost as sure as the 
season ; and so the surplus agricultural population either 
emigrates or removes to the fishing grounds on the coast. 
There is, undoubtedly, a considerable quantity of wild land 
which could be made arable, but the same means, applied tc 
the improvement of that which is at present under cultiva- 
tion, would accomplish far more beneficent results. 

Leaving the valley, we drove for some time through pirn 
forests, and here, as elsewhere, had occasion to notice the 
manner in which this source of wealth has been drained of 
late years. The trees were very straight and beautiful, but 
there were none of more than middle age. All the fine old 
timber had been cut away ; all Norway, in fact, has been 
despoiled in like manner, and the people are but just awak- 



A TRIP TO THE VoRING-FOSS. 3^9 

mof to the fact, that they are killing a goose which lays 
golden eggs. The government, so prudently economical 
that it only allows $100,000 worth of silver to be quarried 
annually in the mines of Kongsberg, lest the supply should 
ne exhausted, has, I believe, adopted measures for the pre- 
servation of the forests ; but I am not able to state their 
precise character. Except in valleys remote from the livers 
and fjords, one now finds very little mature timber. 

" The tallest pine, 
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 
Of some great admiral," 

I have not yet seen. 

We at last came upon a little lake, in a close glen with 
walls 1000 feet high. Not suspecting that we had ascend- 
ed much above the sea-level, we were surprised to see the 
gorge all at once open below us, revealing a dark-blue lake, 
far down among the mountains. We stood on the brink of 
a wall, over which the stream at our side fell in a " hank " 
of divided cataracts. Our road was engineered with great 
difficulty to the bottom of the steep, whence a gentler de- 
scent took us to the hamlet of Vasenden, at the head of the 
lake. Beyond this there was no road for carrioles, and we 
accordingly gave ours in charge of a bright, active and in- 
telligent little post-master, twelve years old. He and his 
mother then rowed us across the lake to the village "f Gra- 
ven, whence there was a bridle-road across the mountains to 
a branch of the Hardanger Fjord. They demanded only 
twelve ^killings (ten cents) for the row of three miles, and 
16 



350 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

then posted off to a neighbouring farmhouse to engagt 
horses for us. 

There was a neat white dwelling on the hill, which we 
took to be the parsonage, but which proved to be the resi- 
dence of an army captain on leave, whom we found sitting 
in the door, cleaning his gun, as we approached. He cour- 
teously ushered us into the house, and made his appearance 
soon afterwards in a clean shirt, followed by his wife, with 
wine and cakes upon a tray. I found him to be a man of 
more than ordinary intelligence, and of an earnest and reflec- 
tive turn of mind, rare in men of his profession. He spoke 
chiefly of the passion for emigration which now possesses 
the Norwegian farmers, considering it not rendered neces- 
sary by their actual condition, but rather one of those con- 
tagions which spread through communities and nations, 
overcoming alike prudence and prejudice. He deplored it 
as retarding the development of Norway. Personal in- 
terest, however, is everywhere stronger than patriotism, and 
I see no signs of the emigration decreasing for some years to 
some. 

After waiting a considerable time, we obtained two horses 
and a strapping farmer's son for guide. The fellow was 
delighted to find out where we came from, and was contin- 
ually shouting to the people in the fields : " Here these are 
Americans: they were born there!" whereat the people 
stared, saluted, and then stared again. He shouldered cur 
packs and marched beside the horses with the greatest ease. 
" You are strong," I remarked. u Yes," he replied, " I am 
a strong Norrnand," making his patriotism an excuse for his 
personal pride. We had a terribly tough pull up the 



A TRIP TO THE V6RING-FOSS. 35} 

iLOuntain, through line woods, to the summit le\el it the 
fjeld. The view backwards, over the lake, was enchanting, 
and we lingered long on the steep, loth to lose it* Turning 
again, a desolate lake lay before us, heathery swells of thf 
bleak table-land and distant peaks, touched with snow r 
Once upon the broad, level summit of a Norwegian fjeld, 
one would never guess what lovely valleys lie under thos* 
misty breaks which separate its immense lobes — what gashes 
of life and beauty penetrate its stony heart. There are, in 
fact, two Norways: one above — a series of detached, ir- 
regular masses, bleak, snowy, wind-swept and heather-grown, 
inhabited by herdsmen and hunters: and one below — a 
ramification of narrow veins of land and water, with fielde 
and forests, highways and villages. 

So, when we had traversed the upper land for several 
miles, we came to a brink overlooking another branch of 
the lower land, and descended through thick woods to the 
farms of Ulvik, on the Eyfjord, an arm of the Hardanger 
The shores were gloriously beautiful : slopes of dazzling 
turf inclosed the bright blue water, and clumps of oak, ash 
and linden, in park-like groups, studded the fields. Low red 
farmhouses, each with its hollow square of stables and 
granaries, dotted the hill- sides, and the people, male and 
female, were everywhere out reaping the ripe barley and 
piling it pillar-wise, upon tall stakes. Owing to this cir 
cumstance we were obliged to wait some time for oarsmen* 
There was no milk to be had, nor indeed anything to eat 
lotwithstanding the signs of plenty on all sides. My friend, 
wandering from house to house, at last discovered an old 
man, who brought him a bowl of mead in exchange for a 



J52 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

cigar. Late in the afternoon two men came, put us into a 
shabby and leaky boat, and pulled away slowly for Vik, ten 
miles distant. 

The fjord was shut in by lofty and abrupt mountains, 
ften interrupted by deep lateral gorges. This is the 
general character of the Hardanger Fjord, a broad winding 
sheet of water, with many arms, but whose extent is di- 
minished to the eye by the grandeur of its shores. Nothing 
can be wilder or more desolate than this scenery, especially 
at the junction of the two branches, where all signs of habi- 
tation are shut out of sight, and one is surrounded by 
mighty precipices of dark-red rock, vanishing away to the 
eastward in a gloomy defile. It was three hours and a half 
before we reached Vik, at the head of a bay on the southern 
side. Here, however, some English fishermen were quar- 
tered and we made sure of a supper. The landlord, of course, 
received their superfluous salmon, and they were not the 
men to spare a potato- field, so both were forthcoming, and 
in the satisfaction of appeased hunger, we were willing to 
indorse the opinion of a former English traveller in the 
guest's book : " This place seems to me a paradise, although 
very probably it is not one." The luxury of fishing, which 
I never could understand, has taught the Norwegians to 
regard travellers as their proper prey. Why should a man, 
they think, pay 50/. for the privilege of catching fish, which 
he gives away as soon as caught, unless he don't know how 
else to get rid of his money ? Were it not that fishing in 
Norway includes pure air, hard fare, and healthy exercise, 1 
should agree with somebody's definition of angling, u a rod 
with a fly at one end and a fool at the other f but it is al 1 



A TRIP TO THE fdRING-FOSS. 353 

that, and besides furnished us with a good meal more than 
once ; wherefore I respect it. 

We were now but eight miles from the Voring-Foss, and 
set out betimes the next morning, taking with us a bottle of 
*ed wine, some dry bread, and Peder Halstensen as guide 
I mention Peder particularly, because he is the only jolly 
lively, wide-awake, open-hearted Norwegian I have ever seen. 
As rollicking, as a Neapolitan, as chatty as an Andalusian, 
and as frank as a Tyrolese, he formed a remarkable contrast 
to the men with whom we had hitherto come in contact. He 
had long black hair, wicked black eyes, and a mouth which 
laughed even when his face was at rest. Add a capital 
tenor voice, a lithe, active frame, and something irresistibly 
odd and droll in his motions, and you have his principal 
points. We walked across the birch-wooded isthmus behind 
Vik to the Eyfjordsvand, a lake about three miles long, 
which completely cuts off the further valley, the mountains 
on either side falling to it in sheer precipices 1000 feet high. 

We embarked in a crazy, leaky boat, Peder pulling vi- 
gorously and singing, " Frie dig ved lifve" (" Life let us 
cherish"), with all the contentment on his face which is ex- 
pressed in Mozart's immortal melody. " Peder/ 7 said I, " do 
you know the national song of Norway ?" " I should think 
so," was his answer, stopping short in the midst of a wild 
fjeld-song, clearing his throat, and singing with a fervour 
and enthusiasm which rang wide over the lonely lake — 

44 Minstrel, awaken the harp from its slumbers, 
Strike for old Norway, the land of the free ! 
Iligh and heroic, in soul-stirring numbers, 
Clime of our fathers, we strike it for thee! 



354 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

Old recollections awake our affections — 

Hallow the name of the land of our birth ; 
Each heart beats its loudest, each cheek glows its proudest, 

For Norway the ancient, the throne of the earth l" * 

" Dost thou know." said he, becoming more . familiar in his 
address, " that a lawyer (by the name of Bjerregaard) wrote 
this song, and the Storthing at Christiania gave him a hun- 
dred specie dollars for.it. That was not too much, was it ?" 
"No," said I, " five hundred dollars would have been little 
enough for such a song." " Yes, yes, that it would," was 
his earnest assent ; and as I happened at that moment to 
ask whether we could see the peaks of the Hailing Jokeln, 
he commenced a soeter-song of life on the lofty fjeld — a song 
of snow, and free winds, and blue sky. By this time we 
had reached the other end of the lake, where, in the midst of 
a little valley of rich alluvial soil, covered with patches of 
barley and potatoes, stood the hamlet of Saebo. Here Peder 
procured a horse for my friend, and we entered the mouth of 
a sublime gorge which opened to the eastward — a mere split 
in the mighty ramparts of the Hardanger-Fjeld. Peder 
was continually shouting to the people in the fields : "Look 
here ! These are Americans, these two, and the other one 
is a German ! This one talks Norsk, and the others don't." 
We ascended the defile by a rough footpath, at first 
through alder thickets, but afterwards over immense masses 
of rocky ruin, which had tumbled from the crags far above, 
and almost blocked up the valley. For silence, desolation, 
and awful grandeur, this defile equals any of the Alpine 
passes. Tn the spring, when the rocks, split by wedges oJ 

v Latham's translation. 



A TRIP TO V6R1NG-FOSS. 355 

ice, disengage themselves from the summit, and thunder 
down upon the piled wrecks of ages, it must be terribly sub- 
lime. A bridge, consisting of two logs spanned across abut- 
ments of loose stones, and vibrating strongly under oar 
tread, took us over the torrent. Our road, for some distance 
was now a mere staircase, scrambling up, down, under, over ; 
and between the chaos of sundered rocks. A little fur 
ther, and the defile shut in altogether, forming a cul cle sac 
of apparently perpendicular walls, from 2000 to 3000 feet 
high. li How are we to get out of this ? ,? I asked Peder. 
" Yonder, 1 ' said he, pointing to the inaccessible summit in 
front. " But where does the stream come from ?" " That 
you will soon see." Lo ! all at once a clean. split from top 
to bottom disclosed itself in the wall on our left, and in 
passing its mouth we had a glimpse up the monstrous chasm, 
whose dark-blue sides, falling sheer 3000 feet, vanished at 
the bottom in eternal gloom and spray. 

Crossing the stream again, we commenced ascending over 
the debris of stony avalanches, the path becoming steeper 
and steeper, until the far-off summit almost hung over our 
heads. It was now a zigzag ladder, roughly thrown together, 
but very firm. The red mare which my friend rode climbed 
it like a cat, never hesitating, even at an angle of 50°, and 
never making a false step. The performance of this noble 
animal was almost incredible. I should never have believed 
a horse capable of such gymnastics, had I not seen it with 
my own eyes, had I not mounted her myself at the most 
difficult points, in order to test her powers. Yon, who have 
slimbed the Mayenwand, in going from the glacier of the 
Rhon^ to the Grimsel, imagine a slant higher, steeper, and 



356 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

composed of loose rocks, and you will have an exact pictun 
of our ascent. We climbed well; and yet it took us just 
an hour and a half to reach the summit. 

We were now on the great plateau of the Hardangei 
Fjeld, 2500 feet above the sea. A wild region lay before U3 
—great swells, covered with heather, sweeping into the dis- 
tance and given up to solitude and silence. A few iso- 
lated peaks, streaked with snow, rose from this upper level; 
and a deep break on our left revealed the top of the chasm 
through which the torrent made its way. At its extremity, 
a mile or more distant, rose a light cloud of vapour, seem- 
ing close at hand in the thin mountain air. The thick, 
spongy soil, not more than two feet deep, rests on a solid 
bed of rock, — the entire Hardanger Fjeld, in fact, is but a 
single rock, — and is therefore always swampy. Whortle- 
berries were abundant, as well as the multeberry (Rubus 
cham<£moras), which I have found growing, in Newfound- 
land ; and Peder, running off on the hunt of them, was con- 
tinually leading us astray. But at last, we approached the 
wreath of whirling spray, and heard the hollow roar of 
the Voring-Foss. The great chasm yawned before us ; ano- 
ther step, and we stood on the brink. I seized the branch 
of a tough pine sapling as a support and leaned over. My 
head did not swim ; the height was too great for that, the 
impression too grand and wonderful'. The shelf of rock 
•>n which I stood projected far out over a gulf 1200 feet 
Jeep, whose, opposite side rose in one great escarpment from 
the bottom to a height of 800 feet above my head. On this 
black wall, wet with eternal spray, was painted a splendid 
rainbow, forming two thirds of a circle before it melted 



A TRir TO V6RING-FOSS. 357 

into tlie gloom below. A little stream fell in one lono 
thread of silver from the very summit, like a plumb-line 
dropped to measure the 2000 feet. On my right hand the 
river, coming down from the level of the fjeld in a torn. 
twisted, and boiling mass, reached the brink of the gulf at 
a point about 400 feet below me, whence it fell in a single 
sheet to the bottom, a depth of between 800 and 900 feet. 

Could one view it from below, this fall would present one 
of the grandest spectacles in the world. In height, volume 
of water, and sublime surroundings it has no equal. Tht 
spectator, however, looks down upon it from a great height 
above its brink, whence it is so foreshortened that he can 
only guess its majesty and beauty. By lying upon your 
belly and thrusting your head out beyond the roots of the 
pines, you can safely peer into the dread abyss, and watch, 
through the vortex of whirling spray in its tortured womb, 
the starry coruscations which radiate from the bottom of thtj 
fall, like rockets of water incessantly exploding. But this 
view, sublime as it is, only whets your desire to stand below ; 
and see the river, with its sprayey crest shining against the 
sky, make but one leap from heaven to hell. Some persons 
have succeeded, by entering the chasm at its mouth in the 
valley below, in getting far enough to see a portion of the 
fall, the remainder being concealed by a projecting rock : 
and the time will come, no doubt, when somebody will have 
energy enough to carry a path to its very foot. I envy th<? 
travellers who will then visit the Voring-Foss. 

A short distance above the fall there are a few cabins m 

habited by sceters, or herdsmen, whither we repaired to pro 

cure some fresh milk. The house was rude and dirty : h\i 
16* 



358 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

the people received us in a friendly manner. The powerful 
housewife laid aside her hay-rake, and brought us milk 
which was actually sweet (a rare thing in Norway.) dirty, 
but not rancid butter, and tolerable cheese. When my friend 
asked for water, she dipped a pailful from a neighbouring 
stream, thick with decayed moss and vegetable mould, and 
handed it to him. He was nice enough to pick out a rotten 
root before drinking, which one of the children snatched up 
from the floor and ate. Yet these people did not appear to 
be in want ; they were healthy, cheerful, and contented ; and 
their filthy manner of living was the result of sheer indo- 
lence and slovenliness. There was nothing to prevent them 
from being neat and comfortable, even with their scanty 
means; but the good gifts of God are always spoiled and 
wasted in dirty hands. 

When we opened our bottle of wine, an exquisite aroma 
diffused itself through the room — a mingled smell of vine 
blossoms and ripe grapes. How could the coarse vintage 
sent to the North, watered and chemically doctored as it is, 
produce such a miracle ? We tasted — superb old Chateau 
Latour, from the sunniest hill of Bordeaux ! By whatever 
accident it had wandered thither, it did not fall into unap- 
preciative hands. Even Brita Halstendsdatter Hoi, the 
strong housewife, smacked her lips over the glass which she 
drank after sitting to me for her portrait. 

When the sketch was completed, we filled the einptj 
bottle with milk and set out on our return. 



SKETCHES FROM THE BEBGES8TIFT. 359 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

SKETCHES FROM THE BERGENSTIFT. 

Ouff return from the Yoring-Foss to the hamlet of Saebo 
was accomplished without accident or particular incident. 
As we were crossing the Eyfjordsvand, the stillness of the 
savage glen, yet more profound in the dusk of evening, was 
broken by the sudden thunder of a slide in some valley to 
the eastward. Peder stopped in the midst of "Frie dig ved 
lifvet" and listened. " Ho !" said he, " the spring is the 
time when the rocks come down, but that sounds like a big 
fellow, too." Peder was not so lively on the way back, not 
because he was fatigued, for in showing us how they danced 
on the fjeld, he flung himself into the air in a marvellous 
manner, and turned over twice before coming down, but 
partly because he had broken our bottle of milk, and partly 
because there was something on his mind. I waited patient- 
ly, knowing that it would come out at last, as indeed it did 
* ; You see," said he, hesitatingly, " some travellers give a 
drink-money to the guide. It is n't an obligation, you 
know ; but then some give it. Now, if you should choose 
to give me anything, do n't pay it to the landlord for me. 
oecause then I won't get it You are not bound to do so 



360 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

you know but some travellers do it, and I do n't know bul 
you might also. Now. if you should, give it directly to mej 
and then 1 will have it." When we reached Vik, we called 
Peder aside and gave him three marks. " Oh, you must 
pay your 'bill to the landlord," said he. " But that is your 
drink-money," I explained. " That ?" he exclaimed ; rt it is 
not possible ! Frie dig ved lifvet" &a, and so he sang, cut 
a pigeon-wing or two, and proceeded to knot and double 
knot the money in a corner of his pocket-handkerchief. 

" Come and take a swim !" said Peder, reappearing. " I 
can swim ever since I fell into the water. I tumbled off the 
pier, you must know, and down I went. Everything became 
black before my eyes; and I thought to myself, ' Peder, this 
is the end of you.' But I kicked and splashed nevertheless, 
until my eyes opened again, wide enough to see where a rope 
was. Well, after I found I could fall into the water without 
drowning, I was not afraid to swim." In fact, Peder now 
swam very well, and floundered about with great satisfaction 
in the ice cold water. A single plunge was all I could endure. 
After supper the landlady came in to talk to me about 
America. She had a son in California, and a daughter in 
Wisconsin, and showed me their daguerrotypes and some bits 
of gold with great pride. She was a stout, kindly, motherly 
body, and paid especial attention to our wants on finding 
where we came from. Indeed we were treated in the most 
friendly manner by these good people, and had no reason to 
complain of our reckoning on leaving. This experience 
confirms me in the belief that honesty and simplicity may 
still be characteristics of the Norwegians in the more remotf 
parts of the country. 



SKETCHES FROM THE BERGENSTIFT 361 

We bade a cordial farewell to Vik next morning, and set 
off on our return, in splendid sunshine. Peder was in the 
boat, rejoiced to be with us again ; and we had no sooner 
gotten under way, than he began singing, " Frie dig ved f 
lifvet.' 9 It was an intensely hot day, and the shores of Ulvik 
were perfectly dazzling. The turf had a silken gloss ; the 
trees stood darkly and richly green, and the water was 
purest sapphire. " It is a beautiful bay, is it not ?" said the 
farmer who furnished us with horses, after we had left the 
boat and were slowly climbing the fjeld. I thought I had 
never seen a finer ; but when heaven and earth are in entire 
narmony, when form, colour and atmosphere accord like 
3ome rich swell of music, whatever one sees is perfect. 
Hence I shall not say how beautiful the bay of Ulvik was to 
me, since under other aspects the description would not be 
true. 

The farmer's little daughter, however, who came along to 
take back one of the horses, would have been a pleasant ap- 
parition at any time and in any season. She wore her 
Sunday dress, consisting of a scarlet bodice over a white 
chemise, green petticoat, and white apron, while her shining 
flaxen hair was plaited into one long braid with narrow 
strips of crimson and yellow cloth and then twisted like a 
garland around her head. She was not more than twelve or 
thirteen years old. but tall, straight as a young pine, and 
beautifully formed, with the promise of early maidenhood in 
the gentle swell of her bosom. Her complexion was lovely 
— pink, brightened with sunburnt gold, — and her eyes like 
the blossoms of the forget-me-not, in hue. In watching hei 
firm yet graceful tread, as she easily kept pace with thf 



J62 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

horse, I could not realise that in a few more years she would 
probably be no more graceful and beautiful than the womec 
at work in the fields — coarse, clumsy shapes, with frowzy 
air, leathery faces, and enormous hanging breasts. 

In the Bergenstift, however, one sometimes sees a pretty 
face ; and the natural grace of the form is not always lost 
About Vossevangen, for instance, the farmers' daughters are 
often quite handsome; but beauty, either male or female, is 
in Norway the rarest apparition. The grown-up women, 
especially after marriage, are in general remarkably plain. 
Except among some of the native tribes of Africa, I have 
nowhere seen such overgrown, loose, pendant breasts as 
among them. This is not the case in Sweden, where, if 
there are few beauties, there are at least a great many pass 
able faces. There are marked differences in the blood of the 
two nations; and the greater variety of feature and com- 
plexion in Norway seems to indicate a less complete fusion 
of the original stocks. 

We were rowed across the Graven Lake by an old farmer, 
who wore the costume of the last century, — a red coat, a la 
Frederic the Great, long waistcoat, and white knee-breeches. 
He demanded double the lawful fare, which, indeed, was 
shamefully small ; and we paid him without demur. At 
Vasenden we found our carrioles and harness in good con- 
dition, nothing having been abstracted except a ball of twine. 
Horses were in waiting, apparently belonging to some well- 
to-do farmer ; for the bqys were well dressed, and took 
especial care of them. We reached the merchant's comforta- 
ble residence at Vossevangen before sunset, and made amend? 



SKETCHES FROM THE BERGENSTIFT. S6c 

on his sumptuous fare for the privations of the past three 
days. 

We now resumed the main road between Christiania and 
Bergen. The same cloudless days continued to dawn upon 
us. For one summer, Norway had changed climates with 
Spain. Our oil- cloths were burnt up and cracked by the 
heat, our clothes covered with dust, and our faces became as 
brown as those of Bedouins. For a week we had not a 
cloud in the sky ; the superbly clear days belied the old say 
ing of " weather- breeders." 

Our road, on leaving Vossevangen, led through pine- 
forests, following the course of a stream up a wild valley, 
enclosed by lofty mountains. Some lovely cataracts fell 
from the steep on our left ; but this is the land of cataracts 
and there is many a one, not even distinguished by a name, 
which would be renowned in Switzerland. I asked my 
postillion the name of the stream beside us. " Oh," said he ; 
1 it has none ; it is not big enough !" He wanted to take 
us all the way through to Gudvangen, twenty-eight miles, 
on our paying double fare, predicting that we would be 
obliged to wait three hours for fresh horses at each interme- 
diate station. He waited some time at Tvinde, the first 
station, in the hope that we would yield, but departed sud- 
denly in a rage on seeing that the horses were already com- 
ing. At this place, a stout young fellow, who had evidently 
oeen asleep, came out of the house and stood in the door 
staring at us with open mouth for a full hour. The post 
master sat on the step and did likewise. It was the height 
of harvest-time, and the weather favourable almost to a 
miracle ; yet most of the harvesters lay upon their backs 



364 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

under the trees as we passed. The women appeared to dc 
most of the out-door, as well as the inn-door work. The)* 
are certainly far more industrious than the men, who, judg 
ing from what I saw of them, are downright indolent 
Evidences of slow, patient, plodding toil, one sees truly ; but 
active industry, thrift, and honest ambition, nowhere. 

The scenery increased in wildness and roughness as we 
proceeded. The summit of Hvitnaset (White-nose) lifted 
its pinnacles of grey rock over the brow of the mountains on 
the north, and in front, pale, blue-grey peaks, 5000 feet high, 
appeared on either hand. The next station was a village 
of huts on the side of a hill. Everybody was in the fields 
except one woman, who remained to take charge of the sta- 
tion. She was a stupid creature, but had a proper sense of 
her duty ; for she started at fall speed to order horses, and 
we afterwards found that she must have run full three 
English miles in the space of half an hour. The emigra- 
tion to America from this part of Bergenstift has been very 
great, and the people exhibited much curiosity to see and 
speak with us. 

The scenery becafne at the same time more barren and 
more magnificent, as we approached the last station, Stal- 
heim, which is a miserable little village at the head of the 
famous Naerodal. Our farmer-postillion wished to take us 
on to Gudvangen with the same horses, urging the same rea- 
sons as the former one. It would have been better if wc 
had accepted his proposal ; but our previous experience had 
made us mistrustful. The man spoke truth, however ■ hour 
after hour passed away, and the horses came not; A few 
miserable people collected about us, and begged money. 1 



SKEl.iiES FROM THE BERGENSTIFT. 365 

sketched the oldest, ugliest and dirtiest of them, as a speci* 
men, but regretted it afterwards, as his gratitude on receiv 
ing a tritie for sitting, obliged me to give him my hand 
Hereupon another old fellow, not quite so hideous, wanted 
to be taken also. " Lars." said a woman to the former, ''are 
you not ashamed to have so ugly a face as yours go to 
America ?" " Oh,- ? said he, " it does not look so ugly in the 
book" His delight on getting the money created some 
amusement. " Indeed/' he protested, " I am poor, and want 
it ; and you need not laugh." 

The last gush of sunset was brightening the tops of the 
savage fjeld when the horses arrived. We had waited two 
hours and three quarters and I therefore wrote a complaint 
in the post-book in my best Norsk. From the top of a hill 
beyond the village, we looked down into the Naerodal. We 
stood on the brink of a tremendous wall about a thousand 
feet above the valley. On one side, the stream we had been 
following fell in a single cascade 400 feet ; on the other, a 
second stream, issuing from some unseen defile, flung it? 
several ribbons of foam from nearly an equal height. 
The valley, or rather gorge, disappeared in front between 
mountains of sheer rock, which ro3e to the height of 3000 
.feet. The road — a splendid specimen of engineering — was 
doubled back and forth around the edge of a spur projecting 
from the wall on which we stood, and so descended to the 
ottom. Once below, our carrioles rolled rapidly down the 
gorge, which was already dusky with twilight. The stream, 
of the most exquisite translucent azure-green colour, rolled 
between us; and the momtain crests towered so far above, 
that our necks ached as we looked upwards. I have peer 



366 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

but one valley which in depth and sublimity can equal tht 
Naerdol — the pass of the Taurus, in Asia Minor, leading 
from Cappadocia into CiKcia. In many places the precipices 
were 2000 feet in perpendicular height ; and the streams of 
the upper fjeld, falling from the summits, lost themselves 
in evanescent water-dust before they reached the bottom 
The bed of the valley was heaped with fragments of rock ; 
which are loosed from above with every returning spring. 

It was quite dark before we reached Gudvangen, thoiv 
oughly tired and as hungry as wolves. My postillion, on 
hearing me complain, pulled a piece of dry mutton out of 
tiis pocket and gave it to me. He was very anxious to learn 
whether brandy and tobacco were as dear in America as in 
Norway ; if so, he did not wish to emigrate. A stout girl had 
charge of Braisted's horse ; the female postillions always fell 
to his lot. She complained of hard work and poor pay, and 
would emigrate if she had the money. At Gudvangen 
we had a boat journey of thirty-five miles before us, and 
therefore engaged two boats with eight oarsmen for the mor- 
row. The people tried hard to make us take more, but we 
had more than the number actually required by law, and, as 
it turned out, quite as many as were necessary. Travellers 
generally supply themselves with brandy for the use of their 
ooatmen, from an idea that they will be stubborn and dilatory 
without it. We did so in no single instance ; yet our men 
were always steady and cheerful. 

We shipped our carrioles and sent them off in the larger 
boat, delaying our own departure until we had fortified our- 
selves with a good breakfast, and laid in some hard bread 
and pork omelette, for the day. The Gudvangen Fjord 



SKETCHES FROM THE BERGEN STIFT. 36? 

down which we now glided over the glassy water is a nar- 
row mountain avenue of glorious scenery. The unseen 
plateaus of theBlaa and Graa Fjelds. on either hand, spilled 
their streams over precipices from 1000 to 2000 feet in heigh i f 
above whose cornices shot the pointed summits of bare grey 
rock, wreathed in shifting clouds, 4000 feet above the sea 
Pine-trees feathered the less abrupt steeps, with patches of 
dazzling turf here and there; and wherever a gentler slope 
could he found in the coves, stood cottages surrounded by 
potato-fields and ripe barley stacked on poles. Not a breath 
of air. rippled the dark water, which was a perfect mirror to 
the mountains and the strip of sky between them, while 
broad sheets of morning sunshine, streaming down the breaks 
in the line of precipices, interrupted with patches of fiery 
colour the deep, rich, transparent gloom of the shadows. 
It was an enchanted voyage until we reached the mouth of 
the Aurlands Fjord, divided from that of Gudvangen by a 
Bingle rocky buttress 1000 feet high. Beyond this point 
the watery channel is much broader, and the shores diminish 
in grandeur as they approach the Sogne Fjord, of which 
this is but a lateral branch. 

I was a little disappointed in the scenery of Sogne Fjord. 
The mountains which enclose it are masses of sterile rock, 
neither lofty nor bold enough in their forms to make im- 
pression, after the unrivalled scenery through which we had 
passed. The point of Vangnsss, a short distance to the 
westward, is the "Framnaes ,? of Frithiofs Saga, and I 
therefore looked towards it with some interest, for the sake 
of that hero and his northern lily, Ingeborg. There are 
many bauta -stones still standing on the shore, but one who 



St)8 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

is familiar with Tegner's poem must not except to find his 
descriptions verified, either in scenery or tradition. On 
turning eastward, around the point of Fronningen, we were 
surprised by the sudden appearance of two handsome houseSj 
with orchards and gardens, on the sunny side of the bank. 
The vegetation, protected in some degree from the sea-winds, 
was wonderfully rich and luxuriant. There were now oc- 
casional pine- woods on the southern shore, but the general 
aspect of this fjord is bleak and desolate. In the heat and 
breathless silence of noonday, the water was like solid 
crystal. A faint line, as if drawn with a pencil along the 
bases of the opposite mountains, divided them from the 
equally perfect and palpable mountains inverted below them. 
In the shadows near us, it was quite impossible to detect 
the boundary between the substance and its counterpart. 
In the afternoon we passed the mouth of the northern arms 
of the fjord, which strike into the heart of the wildest and 
grandest region of Norway ; the valley of Justedal, with its 
tremendous glaciers, the snowy teeth of the Hurunger, and 
the crowning peaks of the Skagtolstind. Our course lay 
down the other arm, to Laerdalsoren, at the head of the 
fjord. By five o'clock it came in sight, at the mouth of 
a valley opening through the barren flanks on the Fille 
Fjeld. We landed, after a voyage of ten hours, and found 
welcome signs of civilisation in a neat but exorbitant inn. 

Our boatmen, with the exception of stopping half an 
hour for breakfast, had pulled steadily the whole time. We 
had no cause to be dissatisfied with them, while they were 
delighted with 'the moderate gratuity we gave them. They 
were tough, well-made fellows, possessing a considerable 



SKETCHES FHOM THE BERGEN STIFT. 359 

dmoutit of endurance, but less actual strength thin one would 
suspect. Braisted, who occasionally tried his hand at an 
oar, cculd pull them around with the greatest ease. English 
travellers whom I have met inform me that in almost every 
trial they find themselves stronger than the Norwegians. 
This is probably to be accounted for by their insufficient 
nourishment. Sour milk and oaten bread never yet fed an 
athlete. The proportions of their bodies would admit of 
fine muscular development ; and if they cannot do what their 
Viking ancestors once did, it is because they no longer live 
upon the spoils of other lands, as they. 



3TJ* %'ORTHERN TRAVEL 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

HALLINGDAL THE COUNTRY-PEOPLE OF NORWAY. 

There are two roads from Laerdalsoren to Christiama 
the eastern one passing through the districts of Valders and 
Hadeland, by way of the Little Miosen Lake and the Rands- 
fjord, while the western, after crossing the Fille Fjeld, de- 
scends the long Hallingdal to Ringerike. In point of 
scenery there is little difference between them ; but as we 
intended visiting the province of Tellemark, in Southern 
Norway, we chose the latter. The valley of the Fille Fjeld ; 
which we entered on leaving Laerdalsoren, is enclosed by 
wild, barren mountains, more isolated and irregular in their 
forms than the Hardanger and Dovre Fjelds. There were 
occasional precipices and dancing waterfalls, but in general 
the same tameness and monotony we had found on the Sogne 
Fjord. Down the bed of the valley flowed a large rapid 
stream, clear as crystal, and of a beautiful beryl tint. The 
cultivation was scanty ; and the potato fields, utterly ruined 
by disease, tainted the air with sickening effluvia. Th 
occasional forests on the hillsides were of fir and birch, while 
poplar, ash, and linden grew in the valley. The only fruit 
trees I saw were some sour red cherriea 



HALLINGDAL — THE COUNTRY-PEOPLE OF NORWAY 371 

But in the splendour of the day. this unfriendly valley 
shone like a dell of the Apennines. Not a cloud disturbed 
the serenity of the sky ; the brown grass and yellow moss 
on the mountains were painted with sunny gold, and the 
gloss and sparkle of the foliage equalled that of the Italian 
ilex and laurel. On the second stage a new and superb 
road carried us through the rugged defile of Saltenaaset. 
This pass is evidently the effect of some mighty avalanche 
thousands of ages ago. The valley is blocked up by tre- 
mendous masses of rock, hurled one upon the other in the 
wildest confusion, while the shattered peaks from which they 
fell still tower far above. Threading this chaos in the sha- 
dow of the rocks, we looked across the glen upon a braided 
chain of foam, twisted together at the end into a long white 
cascade, which dropped into the gulf below. In another 
place, a rainbow meteor suddenly flashed across the face of a 
dark crag, betraying the dusty spray of a fall, else invisible. 

On the third stage the road, after mounting a difficult 
steep, descended into the valley of Borgund, in which stands 
most probably the most ancient church in Norway, It is a 
singular, fantastic structure, bristling with spiky spires and 
covered with a scale armour of black pitched shingles. It is 
certainly of no more recent date than the twelfth century, 
and possibly of the close of the eleventh. The architecture 
shows the Byzantine style in the rounded choir and the 
arched galleries along the sides, the Gothic in the windows 
and poinded gables, and the horned ornaments on the roof 
suggest the pagan temples of the ante-Christian period. A 
more grotesque affair could hardly be found in Christendom ; 
it could only be matched among the monstrosities of Chinese 



3?2 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

art. With the exception of the church of Hitterdal, it 
Tellemark, a building of similar date, this is the best pre- 
served of the few antiquities of Norway. The entire absence 
3f feudal castles is a thing to be noticed. Serfdom never 
existed here, and one result of this circumstance, perhaps, is 
the ease with which institutions of a purely republican stamp 
have been introduced. 

Our road still proceeded up the bottom of a rough barren 
valley crossing stony headlands on either side. At the 
station of Haug our course turned to the south-east, climb- 
ing a slope leading to the plateau of the Pille Fjeld — a 
severe pull for pur horses in the intense heat. The birch 
woods gradually diminished in size until they ceased alto- 
gether, and the naked plain stretched before us. In thia 
upper land the air was delicious and inspiring. We were 
more than 3000 feet above the sea, but the summits to the 
right and left, with their soft gleams, of pale gray, lilac and 
purple hues in the sunshine, and pure blue in shadow, rose 
to the height of 6000. The heat of the previous ten days 
had stripped them bare of snow, and the landscape w^s drear 
and monotonous. The summits of the Norwegian Fjelds 
have only the charm of wildness and bleakness. I doubt 
whether any mountains of equal height exhibit less grandeui 
in their upper regions. The most imposing features of 
Norwegian scenery are its deep valleys, its tremendous gorges 
with their cataracts, flung like banners from steeps which 
seem to lean against the very sky, and, most of all, its wind- 
ing, labryrinthine fjords — valleys of the sea, in which the 
phenomena of the valleys of the land are repeated. I found 



HALLINGDAL.— THE COUNTRY-PEOPLE OF NORWAY. 373 

uo scenery in the Bergenstift of so original and impressive 
tt character as that of the Lofoden Isles. 

The day was Sunday, and we, of course, expect to see 
tiome evidence of it in the appearance of the people. Yet, 
during the whole day, we found but one clean person — the 
hostess of an inn on the summit of Fille Fjeld, where we 
stopped to bait our horses. She was a young fresh-faced 
woman, in the first year of her wifehood, and her snowy 
chemise and tidy petticoat made her shine like a.star among 
the dirty and frowzy creatures in the kitchen. I should not 
forget a boy, who was washing his face in a brook as we 
passed; but he was young, and didn ? t know any better. 
Otherwise the people lounged about the houses, or sat on 
the rocks in the sun, filthy, and something else, to judge 
from certain signs. At Haug, forgetting that it was a fast 
station, where there is no tilsigelse (money for ordering 
horses) to be paid, I handed the usual sum to the landlady, 
saying : " This is for tilsigelse" u It is quite right," said 
she, pocketing the coin. 

Skirting an azure lake, we crossed the highest part of the 
pass, nearly four thousand feet above the sea, and descended a 
naked valley to the inn of Bjoberg. The landlord received 
us very cordially; and as the inn promised tolerable accom- 
modation, he easily persuaded us to stop there for the night. 
His wife wore a frightful costume, which we afterwards 
found to prevail throughout all Hemsedal and Hallingdal. 
It consisted simply of a band across the shoulders, above the 
breasts, passing around the arms and over the back of the. 
neck, with an immense baggy, dangling skirt hanging 

therefrom io the ancles. Whether she was fat or lean 
17 



3?4 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

straight or crooked, symmetrical or deformed, it was iojos 
sible to discern, except when the wind blew. The only 
thing to be said in favour of such a costume is, that it does 
not impede the development and expansion of the body in 
any direction. Hence I would strongly recommend its 
adoption to the advocates of reform in feminine dress at 
home. There is certainly none of that weight upcn the 
hips, of which they complain in the fashionable costume. It 
is far more baggy, loose, and hideous than the Bloomer, with 
the additional advantage of making all ages and styles ol 
beauty equally repulsive, while on the score of health and 
convenience, there is still less to be said against it. Do not 
stop at half-way measures, oh, fair reformers ! 

It seems incredible that, in a pastoral country like Nor- 
way, it should be almost impossible to procure sweet milk 
and good butter. The cattle are of good quality, there is 
no better grass in the world ; and the only explanation of 
the fact is to be found in the general want of cleanliness, 
especially among the inhabitants of the mountain districts, 
which are devoted to pasturage alone. Knowing this, one 
wonders the less to see no measures taken for a supply of 
water in the richer grain-growing valleys, where it is so 
easily procurable. At Bjoberg, for instance, there was a 
stream of delicious water flowing down the hill, close beside 
the inn, and four bored pine-trunks would have brought it 
to the very door ; but, instead of that, the landlady whirled 
off to the stream in her revolving dress, to wash the dishes, 
or to bring us half a pint to wash ourselves. We found 
water much more abundant the previous winter in Swedish 
Lapland. 



HALLINGDAL. — THE COUNTRY-PEOPLE OF NORWAY 375 

Leaving Bjoberg betimes, we drove rapidly down Hem- 
Bedal, enjoying the pure delicious airs of the upper fjeld. 
The scenery was bleak and grey ; and even the soft pencil of 
the morning sun failed to impart any charm to it, except the 
nameless fascination of utter solitude and silence. The val 
ley descends so gradually that we had driven two Norsk 
miles before the fir-forests in its bed began to creep up the 
mountain-sides. During the second stage we passed the re- 
markable peak of Saaten, on the opposite side of the valley — 
the end or cape of a long projecting ridge, terminating in a 
acarped cliff, from the very summit of which fell a cascade 
from three to four hundred feet in height. Where the water 
came from, it w T as impossible to guess, unless there were a 
large deposit of snow in the rear ; for the mountains fell 
away behind Saaten, and the jagged, cleft headland rose 
alone above the valley. It was a strange and fantastic fea- 
ture of the landscape, and, to me, a new form in the repertory 
of mountain aspects. 

We now drove, through fir-woods balmy with warm resi- 
nous odours, to Ekre, where we had ordered breakfast by 
forbud. The morning air had given us a healthy appetite ; 
but our spirits sank when the only person at the station, a 
stupid girl of twenty, dressed in the same bulging, hideous 
Back, informed us that nothing was to be had. After some 
persuasion she promised us coffee, cheese, and bread, which 
came in due time; but with the best will we found it im- 
possible to eat anything. The butter was rather black than 
yellow, the cheese as detestable to the taste as to the smell, 
the bread made apparently of saw-dust, with a slight mix- 
ture of oat- bran, and the coffee muddy dregs, with some sour 



376 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

cream in a cup and sugar-candy which appeared to have 
been sucked and then dropped in the ashes. The original 
colour of the girl's hands was barely to be distinguished 
through their coating of dirt ; and all of us, tough old tra- 
vellers as we were, sickened at the sight of her. I verily 
believe that the poorer classes of the Norwegians are the 
filthiest people in Europe. They are even worse than the 
Lapps, for their habits of life allow them to be clean. 

After passing Ekre, our view opened down the valley, 
over a wild stretch of wooded hills, to the blue mountain 
folds of the Hallingdal, which crosses the Hemsedal almost 
at right angles, and receives its tributary waters. Thfj 
forms of the mountains are here more gradual ; and those 
grand sweeps and breaks which constitute the peculiar 
charms of the scenery of the Bergenstift are met with no 
longer. We had a hot ride to the next station, where we 
were obliged to wait nearly an hour in the kitchen, our 
forbud not having been forwarded from the former station 
as soon as the law allowed us to expect. A strapping boy 
of eighteen acted as station master. His trowsers reached 
considerably above his shoulder blades, leaving barely room 
for a waistcoat, six inches long, to be buttoned over his col- 
lar bone. The characteristic costumes of Norway are more 
quaint and picturesque in the published illustrations than in 
the reality, particularly those of Hemsedal. My postillion 
to this station was a communicative fellow, and gave me 
some information atout the value of labour. A harvest- 
hand gets from one mark (twenty-one cents) to one and a 
half daily, with food, or two marks without. Most work is 
paid by the job ; a strong lumber-man may make two and 3 



HALLTNGDAL.— THE COUNTRY PEOPLE OP NORWAY. 377 

half marks when the days are long, at six skillings (five 
cents) a tree — a plowman two marks. In the winter the 
usual wages of labourers are two marks a week, with board. 
Shoemakers, tailors, and other mechanics average about Uie 
^ame daily. When one considers the scarcity of good food, 
and the -high price of all luxuries, especially tobacco and 
brandy, it does not seem strange that the emigration fever 
should be so prevalent. The Norwegians have two traits 
in common with a large class of Americans — rampant pa- 
triotism and love of gain ; but they cannot so easily satisfy 
the latter without sacrificing the former. 

From the village of Gol, with its dark pretty church, we 
descended a steep of many hundred feet, into Hallingdal, 
whose broad stream flashed blue in the sunshine far below 
us. The mountains were now wooded to their very sum- 
mits; and over the less abrupt slopes, ripe oats and barley- 
fields made yellow spots of harvest among the dark forests, 
By this time we were out of smoking material, and stopped 
at the house of a landhandlare, or country merchant, to 
procure a supply. A riotous sound came from the door as 
we approached. Six or eight men, all more or less drunk, 
and one woman, were inside, singing, jumping, and howling 
like a pack of Bedlamites. We bought the whole stock of 
tobacco, consisting of two cigars, and hastened out of the 
len. The last station of ten miles was down the beautiful 
Hallingdal, through a country which seemed rich by con- 
trast with Hemsedel and the barren fjelu Oar stopping- 
place was the village of Naes, which we reached in a famish- 
ed condition, having eaten nothing all day. There were 
two landhandlore in the place, with one of whom we lodged 



378 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

Here we found a few signs of Christianity such a3 gardens 
and decent dresses ; but both of the merchant's shops swarm- 
ed with rum -drinkers. 

I had written, and sent off from Bjoborg, forbud tickets 
for every station as far as Kongsberg. By the legal regula 
tions, the skyds-skaffer is obliged to send forward such 
tickets as soon as received, the traveller paying the cos f 
thereof on his arrival. Notwithstanding we had given ou 
forbud twelve hours 5 start, and had punctually paid^ thft 
expense at every station, we overtook it at Nses. The post- 
master came to know whether we would have it sent on by 
special express, or wait until some traveller bound the same 
way would Lake it for us. I ordered it to be sent immedi- 
ately, astounded at such a question, until, making the ac- 
quaintance of a Scotchman and his wife, who had arrived in 
advance of us, the mystery was solved. They had spent the 
night at the first station beyond Bjoberg, where our forbud 
tickets were given to them, with the request that they would 
deliver them. They had punctually done so as far as Nobs, 
where the people had endeavoured to prevent them from 
stopping for the night, insisting that they were bound to go 
on and carry the forbud. The cool impudence of this 
transaction reached the sublime. At every station that day, 
pay had been taken for service unperformed, and it was 
more than once demanded twice over. 

We trusted the repeated assurance of the post-master at 
Nses, that our tickets had been forwarded at once, and paid 
him accordingly. But at the first station next morning we 
found that he had not done so; and this interlinked chain 
of swindling lasted the whole day. We were obliged to 



HALLINGDAL,— THE COUNTRY PEOPLE OF NORWAY. 379 

wait an hour or two at every post, to pay for messengers 
who probably never went, and then to resist a demand for 
repayment at the other end of the station. What redress 
was there ? We might indeed have written a complaint in 
imperfect Norsk, which would be read by an inspector a 
month afterwards ; or perhaps it would be crossed out as 
soon as we left, as we saw done in several cases. Unless a 
traveller is \ery well versed in the language and in the laws 
relating to the shjds system, he has no defence against im- 
position, and even in such a case, he can only obtain redress 
through delay. The system can only work equitably when 
the people are honest ; and perhaps they were so when it 
was first adopted. 

Here I must tell an unpleasant truth. There must have 
been some foundation in the beginning for the wide reputa- 
tion w 7 hich the Norwegians have for honest simplicity of 
character; but the accounts given by former travellers are 
undeserved praise if applied at present. The people are 
trading on fictitious capital. " Should I have a written con- 
tract?" I asked of a landlord, in relation to a man with 
whom I was making a bargain. " Oh, no," said he, " every- 
body is honest in Norway ; " and the same man tried his best 
to cheat me. Said Braisted, 4S I once heard an old sailor 
say,' — ' when a man has a reputation for honesty, watch him ! ' " 
— and there is some knowledge of human nature in the 
remark. Norway was a fresh field when Laing went thither ; 
opportunities for imposition w r ere so rare, that the faculty 
had not been developed ; he found the people honest, and 
later travellers have been content with echoing his opinion 
* When I first came to the country," said an Irish gentle- 



380 • NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

man who for ten years past has spent his summers there, u I 
was advised, as I did not understand the currency, to offer a 
handful in payment, and let the people take what was due 
to them.' 7 " Would you do it now ? n I asked. " No, indeed/- 
said he, " and the man who then advised me, a Norwegian 
merchant, now says he would not do it either/' An Eng- 
lish salmon-fisher told me very much the same thing. "] 
believe they are honest in their intercourse with each other/ 5 
said he ; " but they do not scruple to take advantage oi 
travellers whenever they can," For my own part, I must 
say that in no country of Europe, except Italy, have I ex 
perienced so many attempts at imposition. Another Eng- 
lishman, who has been farming in Norway for several years. 
and who employs about forty labourers, has been obliged to 
procure Swedes, on account of the peculations of native 
hands. I came to Norway with the popular impression con- 
cerning the people, and would not confess myself so dis- 
agreeably undeceived, cguM I suppose that my own ex- 
periences were exceptional. I found, however, that they 
tallied with those of other travellers ; and the conclusion is 
too flagrant to be concealed. 

As a general rule, I have found the people honest .in pro- 
portion as they are stupid. They are quick-witted when- 
ever the spirit of gain is aroused ; and the ease with which 
they pick up little arts of acquisitiveness does not suggest 
an integrity proof against temptation. It is but a negative 
virtue, rather than that stable quality rooted in the very 
core of a man's nature. I may, perhaps, judge a little 
harshly; but when one finds the love of gain so strongly 
developed, so keen and grasping, in combination with the 



HALLINGDAT,. -THE COUNTRY PEOPLE OF NORWAY. 3gl 

four capital vices of the Norwegians — indolence,. filth, drunk- 
enness, and licentiousness, — the descent to such dishonest 
arts as I have described is scarcely a single step. There 
are, no doubt, many districts where the people are still un- 
tempted by rich tourists and sportsmen, and retain the 
virtues once ascribed to the whole population : but that 
there has been a general and rapid deterioration of character 
cannot be denied. The statistics of morality, for instance, 
show that one child out of every ten is illegitimate; and 
the ratio has been steadily increasing for the past fifty years. 
Would that the more intelligent classes would seriously set 
themselves to work for the good of " Gumle Nor&e" instead 
of being content with the poetical flourish of her nam? ! 

The following day, from Naes to Gree^ was a continua- 
tion of our journey down the Hallingdol There was little 
change in the scenery,-— high fir-wooded mountains on either 
hand, the lower slopes spotted with farms. The houses 
showed some slight improvement as we advanced. The 
people were all at work in the fields, cutting the year's 
satisfactory harvest. A scorching sun blazed in a cloudless 
shy ; the earth was baked and dry, and suffocating clouds of 
Just rose from under our horses' hoofs. Most of the women 
in the fields, on account of the heat, had pulled off their 
body-sacks, and were working in shifts made on the same 
principle, which reached to the knees. ( )ther garments they 
had none. A few, recognising us as strangers, hastily threw 
on their sacks or got behind a barley-stack until we had 
passed; the others were quite unconcerned. One, whose 
garment was exceedingly short, no sooner saw us than she 
commenced a fjeld dance, full of astonishing leaps and whirls 
17* 



382 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

to the great diversion of the other hands. " Weel done; 
cutty sark !" I cried ; but the quotation was thrown away 
upon her. 

Green, on the Kroder Lake, which we did not reach until 
long after dark, was an oasis after our previous experience, 
Such clean, refined, friendly people, such a neat table, such 
excellent fare, and such delicious beds we had certainly 
never seen before. Blessed be decency ! blessed be humanity ! 
was our fervent ejaculation. And when in the morning we 
paid an honest reckoning and received a hearty " lydcsame 
resa P (a lucky journey !) at parting, we vowed that the 
place should always be green in our memories. Thence to 
Kongsberg we had fast stations and civilised people ; the 
country was open, well settled, and cultivated, the scenery 
pleasant and picturesque, and, except the insufferable heat 
and dust, we could complain of nothing, 



rELLEMAKK AND THE RIUKAN FOSS 3§3 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

TELLEMARK AND THE RIUKAN FOSS. 

KongsberGj where we arrived on the 26th of August, is 
celebrated for its extensive silver mines, which were first 
opened by Christian IV in 1624, and are now worked by 
the Government. They are doubtless interesting to min- . 
erahmsts ; but we did not visit them. The guide-book 
says, " The principal entrance to the mines is through a 
level nearly two English miles in length ; from this level you 
descend by thirty-eight perpendicular ladders, of the average 
length of five fathoms each, a very fatiguing task, and then 
find yourself at the bottom of the shaft, and are rewarded 
by the sight of the veins of native silver" — not a bit of 
which, after all, are you allowed to put into your pocket. 
Thank you ! I prefer remaining above ground, and was con- 
tent with having in my possession smelted specimens of the 
ore, stamped with the head of Oscar I. 

The goal of our journey was the Riukan Foss, which lies 
in Upper Tellemark, on the south-eastern edge cf the great 
plateau of the Hardanger Fjeld. This cascade disputes 
with the Vdring Foss the supremacy of the thousand water- 
falls of Norway. There are several ways from Kongsbers 



384 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

thither ; and in our ignorance of the country, we suffered 
ourselves to be guided by the landlord of our hotel. Let no 
traveller follow our example ! The road he recommended 
was almost impassable for carrioles, and miserably supplied 
with horses, while that through Hitterdal, by which we re- 
turned, is broad, smooth, and excellent. We left on the 
morning after our arrival, taking a road which led up the 
valley of the Lauven for some distance, and then struck 
westward through the hills to a little station called Moen. 
Here, as the place was rarely visited by travellers, the 
people were simple, honest, and friendly. Horses could not 
be had in less than two hours ; and my postillion, an intel- 
ligent fellow far gone in consumption, proposed taking the 
same horse to the next station, fifteen miles further. He 
accepted my offer of increased pay ; but another, who ap- 
peared to be the owner of the horses, refused, demanding 
more than double the usual rates. " How is it ?" said I, 
" that you were billing to bring us to Moen for one and a half 
marks, and will not take us to Bolkesjo for less than five ?" 
"It was my turn," he answered, " to furnish post-horses. 1 
am bound by law to bring you here at the price fixed by the 
law ; but now I can make my own bargain, and I want a 
price that will leave me some profit." This was reasonable 
enough ; and we finally agreed to retain two of the horses 
taking the postmaster's for a third. 

The region we now traversed was almost a wilderness 
There were grazing-farms in the valley, with a few fields o 
oats or barley ; but these soon ceased, and an interminable 
forest enclosed us. The road, terribly rough and stony, 
croased spurs of the hills, slowly climbing to a wild summit* 



TELLEMARK AND THE RIUKAN-FOSS. 386 

level, whence we caught glimpses of lakes far below us, and 
the blue mountain-ranges in the west, with the pyramidal 
peak of the Gousta Fjeld crowning them. Bolkesjo, which 
we reached in a little more than two hours, is a small ham- 
let on the western slope of the mountain, overlooking a wide 
tract of lake and forest. Most of the inhabitants were 
away in the harvest-fields; but the skyds-shaffer, a tall 
powerful fellow, with a grin of ineffable stupidity on his 
face, came forward as we pulled in our horses on the turfy 
square between the rows of magazines. " Can we get horses 
at once ?" " Ne-e-ey ! ?; was his drawling answer, accom- 
panied with a still broader grin, as if the thing were a good 
joke. "How soon ?" " In three hours." "But if we pay 
fast prices ?" He hesitated, scratched his head, and drawl- 
ed, " In a liten stimd?" (a " short time"), which may mean 
any time from five minutes to as many hours. " Can we 
get fresh milk ?" " Ne-e-ey !" " Can we get butter ? ? 
" Ne-e-ey !" tt What can we get ?" " Nothing." Fortun- 
ately we had foreseen this emergency, and had brought a 
meal with us from Kongsberg. 

We took possession of the kitchen, a spacious and tolera- 
bly clean apartment, with ponderous benches against two 
sides of it, and two bedsteads, as huge and ugly as those of 
kings, built along the third. Enormous platters of pewter, 
earthen and stone ware,, were ranged on shelves, w f hile a cup- 
board, fantastically painted, contained the smaller crockery. 
There was a heavy red and green cornice above the bed, up- 
on which the names of the host and his wife, with the date 
of their marriage, were painted in yellow letters. The wor- 
thy couple lay so high that several steps were necessary to 



386 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

enable them to reach the bed, in which process their eyee 
encountered words of admonition, painted upon triangular 
boards, introduced to strengthen the pillars at the head and 
foot. One of these inscriptions ran, " This is my bed : here 
I take my rest in the night, and when morning comes I get 
up cheerfully and go to work ;" and the other, u When 
thou liest down to sleep think on thy last hour, pray thai 
God will guard thy sleep, and be ready for thy last hour 
when it comes." On the bottom of the cupboard was a 
representation of two individuals with chalk-white faces 
and inky eyes, smoking their pipes and clinking glasses. 
The same fondness for decorations and inscriptions is seen 
in all the houses in Tellemark and a great part of Halling- 
dal. Some of them are thoroughly Chinese in gaudy colour 
and grotesque design. 

In the course of an hour and a half we obtained three 
strong and spirited stallions, and continued our journey 
towards the Tind-S6. During this stage of twelve or thir- 
teen miles, the quality of our carrioles was tested in the 
most satisfactory manner. Up-hill and down, over stock 
and stone, jolted on rock and wrenched in gulley, they were 
whirled at a smashing rate ; but the tough ash and firmly- 
welded iron resisted every shock. For any other than Nor- 
wegian horses and vehicles, it would have been hazardous 
travelling. We were anxious to retain the same animals 
for the remaining- stage to Tinoset, at the foot of the lake ; 
but the postillions refused, and a further delay of two hours 
was the consequence. It was dark when the. new horses 
same ; and ten miles of forest lay before us. We were fer- 
ned one by one across the Tind Elv, on a weak, loose raft 



TELLEMARK AND THE RITJKAN FOSS. 38? 

and got our carrioles up a frightful bank on the c pposite 
Fide by miraculous luck. Fortunately we struck the post- 
road from Hitterdal at this place ; for it would have been 
impossible to ride over such rocky by-ways as we had left 
behind us. A white streak was all that was visible in th 
gloom of the forest. We kept in the middle of it, not 
knowing whether the road went up, down, or on a level, 
until we had gone over it. At last, however, the forest came 
to an end, and we saw Tind Lake lying still and black in 
the starlight. All were in bed at Tinoset ; but we went in- 
to the common sleeping-room, and stirred the people up 
promiscuously until we found the housewife, who gave us 
the only supper the house afforded — hard oaten bread and 
milk. We three then made the most of two small beds. 

In the morning we took a boat, with four oarsmen, for 
Mael, at the mouth of the Westfjord-dal, in which lies the 
Riukan Foss. There was no end to our wonderful weather. 
In rainy Norway the sky had for once forgotten its clouds. 
One after another dawned the bright Egyptian days, followed 
by nights soft, starry, and dewless. The wooded shores of 
the long Tind Lake were illuminated with perfect sunshine, 
and its mirror of translucent beryl broke into light waves 
under the northern breeze. Yet, with every advantage of 
sun and air, I found this lake undeserving of its reputation 
for picturesque beauty. The highest peaks rise to the 
height of 2000 feet, but there is nothing bold and decided in 
fcheir forms, and after the splendid fjords of the western coast 
the scenery appears tame and common-place. Our boatmen 
pulled well, and by noon brought us to Hakenaes, a distance 
of twenty-one miles. Here we stopped to engage horses tc 



388 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

the Riukan Foss, as there is no post-station at Mael 
While the old man put off in his boat to notify the farmers 
whose turn it was to supply the animals, we entered the 
farm-house, a substantial two-story building. The rooms 
were tolerably clean and well stocked with the clumsy, heavy 
furniture of the country, which is mostly made by the 
farmers themselves, every man being his own carpenter, 
cooper, and blacksmith. There were some odd old stools 
made of segments of the trunk of a tree, the upper part 
hollowed out so as to receive the body, and form a support 
for the back. I have no doubt that this fashion of seat is 
as old as the time of the Vikings. The owner was evidently 
a man in tolerable circumstances, and we therefore cherished 
the hope of getting a good meal ; but all that the old woman, 
with the best will in the world, was able to furnish, was 
milk, butter, oaten bread, and an egg apiece. The upper 
rooms were all supplied with beds, one of which displayed 
remarkable portraits of the Crown Prince of Denmark and 
his spouse, upon the head-board. In another room was a 
loom of primitive construction. 

It was nearly two hours before the old farmer returned 
with the information that the horses would be at Mael as 
soon as we ; but we lay upon the bank for some time after 
arriving there , watching the postillions swim them across 
vhe mouth of the Maan Elv. Leaving the boat, which was 
to await our return the next day, we set off up the West- 
fjord-dal, towards the broad cone-like mass of the Gousta- 
Fjeld, whose huge bulk, 6000 feet in height, loomed grandly 
over the valley. The houses of Mael, clustered about its 
little church, were scattered over the slope above the lake; 



TELLEMARK AND THE RIUKAN FOSS 3^0 

and across the river, amid the fields of grass and grain stood 
another village of equal size. The bed of the valley dot- 
ted with farms and groups of farm-houses, appeared to be 
thickly populated ; but as a farmer's residence rarely consists 
of less than six buildings — sometimes even eight — a stran- 
ger would naturally overrate the number of inhabitants. 
The production of grain, also, is much less than would be 
Supposed from the amount of land under cultivation, owing 
to the heads being so light. The valley of the Maan, ap 
parently a rich and populous region, is in reality rather the 
reverse. In relation to its beauty, however, there can be no 
two opinions. Deeply sunken between the Gousta and ano- 
ther bold spur of the Hardanger, its golden harvest-fields 
and groves of birch, ash, and pine seem doubly charming 
from the contrast of the savage steeps overhanging them, at 
first scantily feathered with fir-trees, and scarred with the 
tracks of cataracts and slides, then streaked only with 
patches of grey moss, and at last bleak and sublimely bare. 
The deeply-channelled cone of the Gousta, with its indented 
summit, rose far above us, sharp and clear in the thin ether - 
but its base, wrapped in forests and wet by many a waterfall 
— sank into the bed of blue vapour which filled the valley. 
There was no Arabian, nor even Byzantine blood in our 
horses ; and our attendants — a stout full-grown farmer and 
a boy of sixteen — easily kept pace with their slow rough 
trot. In order to reach Tinoset the next day, we had de* 
termined to push on to the Riukan Foss the same evening 
Our quarters for the night were to be in the house of the 
>ld farmer, Ole Torgensen, in the village of Dal, half-way 
between Mael and the cataract, which we did not reach unti! 



390 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

five o'clock, when the sun was already resting his chin oi« 
the shoulder of the Gousta. On a turfy slope surrounded 
with groves, above the pretty little church of Dal, we found 
Ole's gaard. There was no one at home except the daugh 
fcer, a blooming lass of twenty, whose neat dress, and grace 
ful, friendly deportment, after the hideous feminines of Hal 
lingdal, in their ungirdled sacks and shifts, so charmed up 
that if we had been younger, more sentimental, and less ea 
perienced in such matters, I should not answer for the con- 
sequences. She ushered us into the guests' room, which was 
neatness itself, set before us a bottle of Bavarian beer and 
promised to have a supper ready on our return. 

There were still ten miles to the Riukan, and consequent- 
ly no time to be lost. The valley contracted, squeezing the 
Maan between the interlocking bases of the mountains, 
through which, in the course of* uncounted centuries, it had 
worn itself a deep groove, cut straight and clean into the 
heart of the rock. The loud, perpetual roar of the vexed 
waters filled the glen; the only sound except the bleating 
of goats clinging to the steep pastures above us. The 
mountain walls on either hand were now so high and pre- 
cipitous, that the bed of the valley lay wholly in shadow; 
and on looking back, its further foldings were dimly seen 
through purple mist. Only the peak of the Gousta, which 
from this point appeared an entire and perfect pyramid, 
1500 feet in perpendicular height above the mountain plat- 
form from which it rose, gleamed with a rich bronze lustre 
in the setting sun. The valley was now a mere ascending 
gorge, along the sides of which our road climbed. Before 
us extended a slanting shelf thrust out from the mountain 



TE1 LEMARK AND THE RIUKAN FOSS. 39l 

And affording room for a few cottages and fields ; but all 
ek? was naked rock and ragged pine'. From one of the 
huts we passed, a crippled, distorted form crawled out oa 
its hands and knees to beg of us. It was a boy of sixteen 
struck with another and scarcely less frightful form of lep 
rosy. In this case, instead of hideous swellings and fungous 
excrescences, the limbs gradually dry up and drop off piece- 
meal at the joints. Well may the victims of both these 
forms of hopeless disease curse the hour in which they were 
begotten. I know of no more awful example of that visi- 
tation of the sins of the parents upon the children, which 
almost always attends confirmed drunkenness, filth, and 
licentiousness. 

When we reached the little hamlet on the shelf of the 
mountain, the last rays of the sun were playing on the sum- 
mits above. We had mounted about 2000 feet since 
leaving the Tind Lake, and the dusky valley yawned far 
beneath us, its termination invisible, as if leading down- 
ward into a lower world. Many hundreds of feet below the 
edge of the wild little platform on which we stood, thunder- 
ed the Maan in a cleft, the bottom of which the sun has 
never beheld. Beyond this the path was impracticable for 
horses ; we walked, climbed, or scrambled along the side of 
the dizzy steep, where, in many places, a false step would 
have sent us to the brink of gulfs whose mysteries we had 
no desire to explore. After we had advanced nearly two 
miles in this manner, ascending rapidly all the time, a hol- 
low reverberation, and a glimpse of profounder abysses 
ahead, revealed the neighbourhood of the Riukan. All at 
once patches of lurid gloom appeared through the opening? 



392 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

of the birch thicket we were threading, and we came abruptlj 
upon the brink of the great chasm into which the rivei 
falls. 

The Riukan lay before us, a miracle of sprayey splen- 
dour, an apparition of unearthly loveliness, set in a frame- 
work of darkness and terror befitting the jaws of hell. 
Before us, so high against the sky as to shut out the colour* 
of sunset, rose the top of the valley — the level of the Har- 
danger table land, on which, a short distance further, lies 
the Mios-Vand, a lovely lake, in which the Maan Ely is 
born. The river first comes into sight a mass of boiling 
foam, shooting around the corner of a line of black cliffs 
which are rent for its passage, curves to the right as it de- 
scends, and then drops in a' single fall of 500 feet in a hol- 
low caldron of bare black rock. The water is already foam 
as it leaps from the summit ; and the successive waves, as 
they are whirled into the air, and feel the gusts which for 
ever revolve around the abyss, drop into beaded fringes in 
falling, and go fluttering down like scarfs of the richest 
lace. It is not water, but the spirit of water. The bottom 
is lost in a shifting snowy film, with starry rays of foam 
radiating from its heart, below which, as the clouds shifts, 
break momentary gleams of perfect emerald light. What 
fairy bowers of some Northern Undine are suggested in 
those sudden flashes of silver and green ! In that dim pro- 
found, which human eye can but partially explore, in which 
human foot shall never be set, what secret wonders may 
gtill lie hidden ! And around this vision of perfect loveli- 
ness, rise the awful walls wet with spray which never dries, 
and crossed by ledges of dazzling turf, from the gulf so fai 



TELLEMAEK ASD THE RIUKAN FOSS. 393 

below our feet, until, still further above our heads, they lift 
their irregular cornices against the sky. 

I do not think I am extravagant when I say that the 
Riukan Foss is the most beautiful cataract in the world. 1 
locked upon it with that involuntary suspension of the 
breath and quickeuing of the pulse, which is the surest re» 
cognition of beauty. The whole scene, with its breadth and 
grandeur of form, and its superb gloom of colouring, en- 
shrining this one glorious flash of grace, and brightness, and 
loveliness, is indelibly impressed upon my mind. Not alone 
during that half hour of fading sunset, but day after day, 
and night after night, the embroidered spray-wreaths of the 
Riukan were falling before me. 

We turned away reluctantly at last, when the emerald 
pavement of Undine's palace was no longer visible through 
the shooting meteors of silver foam. The depths of West- 
fjoi'd dal were filled with purple darkness: only the perfect 
pyramid of the Gousta, lifted upon a mountain basement 
more than 4000 feet in height, shone like a colossal wed ^e 
of fire against the violet sky. By the time we reached oar 
horses we discovered that we were hungry, and, leaving the 
attendants to follow at their leisure, we urged the tired 
animals down the rocky road. The smell of fresh-cut grain 
and sweet mountain hay filled the cool evening air ; darknesr 
crept under the birches and pines, and we no longer met th'j 
home-going harvesters. Between nine and ten our horses 
took the way to a gaard standing a little off the road ; but 
it did not appear to be Ole Torgensen's, so we kept on. In 
the darkness, however, we began to doubt our memory, ;md 
finally turned back again. This time there could be nc 



394 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

mistake: it was not Ole Torgenseirs. I knocked at various 
doors, and hallooed loudly, until a sleepy farmer made his 
appearance, and started us forward again. He kindly of- 
fered to accompany us, but we did not think it necessary. 
Terribly fatigued and hungry, we at last saw a star of 
promise — the light of Ole's kitchen window. There was a 
white cloth on the table in the guests' house, and Ole's 
charming daughter — the Rose of Westfjord-dalen- — did not 
keep us long waiting. Roast mutton, tender as her own 
heart, potatoes plump as her cheeks, and beer sparkling aa 
her eyes, graced the board ; but emptiness, void as our own 
celibate lives, was there when we arose. In the upper 
room there were beds, with linen fresh as youth and aroma- 
tic as spring : and the peace of a full stomach and a clear 
conscience descended upon our sleep. 

In the morning we prepared for an early return to Mael, 
as the boatmen were anxious to get back to their barley- 
fields. I found but one expression in the guests' book — that 
of satisfaction with Ole Torgensen, and cheerfully added our 
amen to the previous declarations. Ole's bill proved his 
honesty, no less than his worthy face. He brightened up on 
learning that we were Americans. " Why," said he, "there 
have only been two Americans here before in all my life ; 
and you cannot be a born American, because you speak 
Norsk so well." " Oh," said I, " I have learned the language 
in travelling." " Is' it possible ?" he exclaimed : " then you 
must have a powerful intellect." " By no means," said I, 
" it is a very easy thing ; I have travelled much, and can 
speak six other languages." Now, God help us !" cried he 
"seven languages! It is truly wonderful how much com- 



TELLEMARK AND THE RJUKAN FOSS 395 

prehension God has given unto man, that he can keep seven 
languages in his head at one time. Here am I, and I am 
not a fool ; yet I do not see how it would be possible for me 
to speak anything but Norsk ; and when I think of you, it 
shows me what wonders God has done. Will you not mak 
a mark under your name, in the book, so that I may distin- 
guish you from the other two ?" I cheerfully complied, and 
hereby notify future visitors why my name is italicised in 
Ole's book. 

We bade farewell to the good old man, and rode down 
the valley of the Maan, through the morning shadow of the 
Gousta. Our boat was in readiness ; and its couch of fii 
boughs in the stern became a pleasant divan of indolence, 
after our hard horses and rough roads. We readied Tino- 
set by one o'clock, but were obliged to wait until four for 
horses. The only refreshment we could obtain was oaten 
bread, and weak spruce beer. Off at last, we took the post- 
road to Hitterdal, a smooth, excellent highway, through in- 
terminable forests of fir and pine. Towards the close of the 
stage, glimpses of a broad, beautiful, and thickly-settled val- 
ley glimmered through the woods, and we found ourselves 
on the edge of a tremendous gully, apparently the bed oi 
an extinct river. The banks on both sides were composed 
entirely of gravel and huge rounded pebbles, masses of which 
we loosened at the top, and sent down the sides, gathering 
as they rolled, until in a cloud of dust they crashed with 3 
sound like thunder upon the loose shingles of the bottom 
200 feet below. It was scarcely possible to account for this 
phenomenon by the action of spring torrents from the melt- 
ed snow. The immense banks of gravel, which we found 



39C NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

to extend for a considerable distance along the northern side 
of the valley, seemed rather to be the deposit of an ocean* 
flood. 

Hitterdal, with its enclosed fields, its harvests, and groups 
of picturesque, substantial farm-houses, gave us promise oi 
good quarters for the night ; and when our postillions stop- 
ped at the door of a prosperous-looking establishment, we 
congratulated ourselves on our luck. But ( — ) never whit- 
tle until you are out of the woods. The people seemed de- 
cidedly not to like the idea of our remaining, but promised 
to give us supper and beds. They were stupid, but not un- 
friendly ; and our causes of dissatisfaction were, first, that 
they were so outrageously filthy, and secondly, that they 
lived so miserably when their means evidently allowed them 
to do better. The family room, with its two cumbrous bed 
steads built against the wall, and indescribably dirty beds, 
was given up to us, the family betaking themselves to the 
stable. As they issued thence in the morning, in single gar 
ments, we were involuntary observers of their degree of bod- 
ily neatness ; and the impression was one we would willingly 
forget. Yet a great painted desk in the room contained, 
amid many flourishes, the names and character of the host 
and hostess, as follows : — "Andres Svennogsen Bamble, and 
Ragnil Thorkilsdatter Bamble, Which These Two Are Re- 
spectable People." Over the cupboard, studded with earth- 
en-ware dishes, was an inscription in misspelt Latin : " Solli 
Deo Glorria " Our supper consisted of boiled potatoes and 
fried salt pork, which, having seen the respectable hosts, it 
required considerable courage to eat, although we had not 
seen the cooking. Fleas darkened the floor ; and they, with 



TELLEMARK AND THE RIUKAN FOSS. '^9/ 

the fear of something worse, prevented us from sleeping 
much. We did not ask for coffee in the morning, but, as 
Boon as we could procure horses, drove away hungry and dis- 
gusted from Bamble-Kaasa and its respectable inhabitants. 

The church of Hitterdal, larger than that of Borgund, 
dates from about the same period, probably the twelfth cen- 
tury. Its style is similar, although it has not the same 
horned ornaments upon the roof, and the Byzantine features 
being simpler, produce a more harmonious effect. It is a 
charmingly quaint and picturesque building, and the people 
of the valley are justly proud of it. The interior has been 
renovated, not in the best style. 

Well, to make this very long chapter short, we parsed the 
beautiful falls of the Tind Elv, drove for more than twenty 
miles over wild piny hills, and then descended to Kongsberg, 
where Fru Hansen comforted us with a good dinner. The 
next day we breakfasted in Drammen, and, in baking heat 
and stifling dust, traversed the civilised country between 
that city and Christiania. Our Norwegian travel was now 
at an end ; and, as a snobby Englishman once said to me of 
the Nile, " it is a good thing to have gotten over." 
18 



398 NORTHERN TRAVEL 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

NORWAY AND SWEDEN. 

We spent four days in Christiania, after completing qui 
Norwegian travels. The sky was still perfectly clear, and 
up to the day of our departure no rain fell. Out of sixty 
days which we had devoted to Norway, only four were 
rainy — a degree of good fortune which rarely falls to the 
lot of travellers in the North. 

Christiania, from its proximity to the continent, and its 
character as capital of the country, is sufficiently advanced 
in the arts of living, to be a pleasant resting-place after the 
desagrimens and privations of travel in the interior. It 
has two or three tolerably good and very exorbitant hotels, 
and some bankers with less than the usual amount of con- 
science. One of them offered to change some Prussian 
thalers for my friend, at only ten per cent, less than their 
current value. The vognmand from whom we purchased 
our carrioles, endeavoured to evade his bargain, and pro- 
tested that he had not money enough to repurchase them, 
I insisted, however, and with such good effect that he finally 
pulled a roll of notes, amounting to several hundred dollars 
out of his pocket, and paid me the amount in full. The 



NORWAY AND SWEDEN. 399 

English travellers whom I met had not fared any better 
and one and all of us were obliged to recede from our pre< 
conceived ideas of Norwegian character. But enough of an 
unpleasant theme ; I would *rather praise than blame/ any 
day, but I can neither praise nor be silent when censure is a 
part of the truth. 

I had a long conversation with a distinguished Norwegian 5 
on the condition of the country people. He differed with 
me in the opinion that the clergy were to some extent re- 
sponsible for their filthy and licentious habits, asserting that, 
though the latter were petits seigneurs, with considerable 
privileges and powers, the people were jealously suspicious 
of any attempt to exert an influence upon their lives. But 
is not this a natural result of the preaching of doctrinal 
religion, of giving an undue value to external forms and 
ceremonies ? " We have a stubborn people," said my infor- 
mant; " their excessive self- esteem makes them difficult to 
manage. Besides, their morals are perhaps better than 
would be inferred from the statistics. Old habits have been 
retained, in many districts, which are certainly reprehensibla 
but which spring from custom rather than depravity. I 
wish they were less vain and sensitive, since in that case 
they would improve more rapidly." He stated also that the 
surprising number of illegitimate births is partly accounted 
for by the fact that there are a great number of connections 
which have all the character of marriage except the actual 
ceremony. This is an affair of considerable cost and show ; 
and many of the poorer people, unable to afford it, live to- 
gether rather than wait, hoping that a time may come when 



400 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

they will be able to defray the expenses, and legitimate the 
children who may meanwhile be born. In some cases the 
parties disagree, the connection is broken off, and each one 
seeks a new mate. Whatever 'palliation there may be in 
particular instances, the moral effect of this custom is un* 
questionably bad ; and the volume of statistics recently pub- 
lished by Herr Sundt, who was appointed by the Storthing 
to investigate the subject, shows that there is no agricultural 
population in the world which stands lower in the scale of 1 
chastity, than that of Norway. 

In the course of our conversation, the gentleman gave an 
amusing instance of the very sensitiveness which he con- 
demned. I happened, casually, to speak of the Icelandic 
language. " The Icelandic language !" he exclaimed. " So 
you also in America call it Icelandic; but you ought to 
know that it is Norwegian. It is the same language spoken 
by the Norwegian Vikings who colonised Iceland — the old 
Norsk, which originated here, and was merely carried thither.''' 
" We certainly have some reason," I replied, " seeing that it 
now only exists in Iceland, and has not been spoken in Nor- 
way for centuries ; but let me ask why you, speaking 
Danish, call your language Norsk." " Our language, as 
written and printed, is certainly pure Danish," said he; 
u but there is some difference of accent in speaking it." He 
did not add that this difference is strenuously preserved and 
even increased by the Norwegians, that they may not be 
suspected of speaking Danish, while they resist with equal 
zeal, any approach to the Swedish. Often, in thoughtlessly 
speaking of the language as Danish, I have heard the ill- 



NORWAY AND SWEDEN. 401 

humoured reply. " Our language is not Danish, but Norsk.* 
As well might we say at home, " We speak American, not 
English." 

I had the good fortune to find Professor Munck, the his- 
torian of Norway, at home, though on the eve of leaving for 
Italy. He is one of the few distinguished literary names 
the country has produced. Holberg the comedian was born 
in Bergen ; but he is generally classed among the Danish 
authors. In art, however, Norway takes no mean rank, the 
names of her painters Dahl, Gude, and Tidemand having a 
European reputation. Professor Munck is about fifty years 
of age, and a fine specimen of the Viking stock. He speaks 
English fluently, and I regretted that the shortness of my 
stay did not allow me to make further drafts on his surplus 
intelligence. In the Museum of Northern Antiquities, 
which is small, as compared with that of Copenhagen, but 
admirably arranged, I made the acquaintance of Professor 
Keyser, the author of a very interesting work, on the " Re- 
ligion of Northmen," a translation of which by Mr. Bur- 
clay Pennock, appeared in New York, some three years ago. 
I was indebted to Professor Munck, for a sight of the 
Storthing, or National Legislative Assembly, which was 
then in session. The large hall of the University, a semi- 
circular room, something like our Senate Chamber, has been 
given up to its use, until an appropriate building shall be 
erected. The appearance and conduct of the body striking-* 
ly reminded me of one of our State Legislatures. The 
members were plain, practical-looking men, chosen from all 
classes, and without any distinguishing mark of dress The 
speaker was quite a young man, with a moustacl fc Scliwe 



402 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

igaard, the first jurist in Norway, was speaking as we en* 
tered. The hall is very badly constructed for sound, and 1 
could not understand the drift of his speech, but was exceed- 
ingly struck by the dryness of his manner. The Norwegian 
Constitution has been in operation forty -three years, and its 
provisions, in most respects so just and liberal, have been 
most thoroughly and satisfactorily tested. The Swedes and 
a small conservative party in Norway, would willingly see 
the powers of the Storthing curtailed a little ; but the people 
now know what they have got, and are further than ever 
from yielding any part of it. In the house of almost every 
Norwegian farmer, one sees the constitution, with thefac- 
simile autographs of its signers, framed and conspicuously 
hung up. The reproach has been made, that it is not an 
original instrument — that it is merely a translation of the 
Spanish Constitution of 1812, a copy of the French Con- 
stitution of 1791, <fcc. ; but it is none the worse for that. " 
Its framers at least had the wisdom to produce the right 
thing at tin right time, and by their resolution and deter- 
mined attitude to change a subject province into a free and 
independent state : for, carefully guarded as it is, the union 
with Sweden is only a source of strength and security. 

One peculiarity of the Storthing is, that a majority of 
its members are, and necessarily must be, farmers ; whence 
Norway is sometimes nicknamed the Farmer State. Nat- 
urally, they take very good care of their own interests, one 
of their first steps being to abolish all taxes on landed prop- 
erty ; but in other respects I cannot learn that their rule i 
not as equitable as that of most legislative bodies. Mugge ; 
in his recently published Nordisches Bilderbuch (Northern 



NORWAY AND SWEDEN 403 

Picture Book), gives an account of a conversation which he 
had with a Swedish statesman on this subject. The latter 
was complaining of the stubbornness and ignorance of the 
Norwegian farmers. Miigge asked, (the remainder of the 
dialogue is too good to be omitted) : — 

"The Storthing, then, consists of a majority of coarse 
and ignorant people ?" 

Statesman. " I will not assert that. A certain practical 
understanding cannot be denied to most of these farmers, 
and they often ]?estow on their sons a good education before 
giving them the charge of the paternal fields. One, there- 
fore, finds in the country many accomplished, men : how 
could there be 700 students in Christiania, if there were 
not many farmers'* sons among them ?" 

Author. "But does this majority of farmers in the 
Storthing commit absurdities ? does it govern the country 
badly, burden it with debts or enact unjust laws ?" 

Statesman. " That cannot exactly be admitted, although 
this majority naturally give3 its own interests the prefer- 
ence, and shapes the government accordingly. The state has 
no debts ; on the contrary, its treasury is full, an abundance 
of silver, its bank-notes in demand, order everywhere, and, 
as you see, an increase of prosperity, with a flourishing com 
merce. Here lies a statement before me, according to which, 
in the last six months alone, more than a hundred vessels 
have been launched in different ports." 

Author. " The Farmer-Legislature, then, as I remark, 
takes care of itself, but is niggardly and avaricious when ita 
own interests are not concerned ?" 

Statesman. "It is a peculiar state of affairs. In very 



404 SOUTH ■■■:!!.%■ TRAVEL. 

many respects this reproach cannot be made against tht, far- 
mers. If anything is to be done for science, or for so-called 
utilitarian objects, they are always ready to give money. If 
a deserving man is to be assisted, if means are wanted for 
beneficial purposes, insane asylums, hospitals, schools, and 
such like institutions, the Council of State is always sure 
that it will encounter no opposition. On other occasions 
however, these lords of the land are as hard and tough a 
Norwegian pines, and button up their pockets so tight that 
not a dollar drops out." * 

" Author. " On what occasions?" 

Statesman. " Why, you see (shrugging his shoulders), 
those farmers have not the least comprehension of states- 
manship ! As soon as there is any talk of appropriations 
for increasing the army, or the number of officers, or the 
pay of foreign ministers, or the salaries of high official per- 
sons, or anything of that sort, you can't do anything with 
them." 

Author. (To himself.) " God keep them a long time 
without a comprehension of statesmanship! If I were a 
member of the Storthing, I would have as thick a head as 
the rest of them." 

On the 5th of September, Braisted and I took passage 
for Gottenburg, my friend having already gone home by 
way of Kiel. We had a smooth sea and an agreeable voy- 
age, and awoke the next morning in Sweden. On the day 
aftvT our arrival, a fire broke out in the suburb of Haga, 
which consumed thirteen large houses, and turned more than 
two hundred poor people out of doors. This gave me an 
opportunity to see how fires are managed here. It was full 



NORWAY AND SWEDEN. 405 

half an hoar after the alarm-bell was rang before the first 
engine began to play ; the water had to be hauled from the 
canal, and the machine, of a very small and antiquated pat* 
tern, contributed little towards stopping the progress of the 
flames. The intervention of a row of gardens alone saved 
the whole suburb from destruction. There must have been 
from six to eight thousand spectators present, scattered all 
over the rocky knolls which surround Gottenburg.- The 
fields were covered with piles of household furniture and 
clothing, yet no guard seemed to be necessary for their pro- 
tection, and the owners showed no concern for their security. 

There is a degree of confidence exhibited towards stran- 
gers in Sweden, especially in hotels, at post-stations, and on 
board the inland steamers, which tells well for the general 
honesty of the people. We went on board the steamer 
Werner on the morning of the 8th, but first paid our pas- 
sage two days afterwards, just before reaching Carlstad. An 
account book hangs up in the cabin, in which each passen- 
ger enters the number of meals or other refreshments he 
has had, makes his own bill and hands over the amount to 
the stewardess. In posting, the skjufskonder very often do not 
know the rates, and take implicitly what the traveller gives 
f hem. I have yet to experience the first attempt at imposi- 
tion in Sweden. The only instances I heard of were re- 
lated to me by Swedes themselves, a large class of whom 
make a point of depreciating their own country and char- 
acter. This habit of detraction is carried to quite as great 
hii extreme as the vanity of the Norwegians, and is the less 
pardonable vice of the two. 

It was a pleasant thing to hear again the musical Swed- 



306 XOKTTTERN TRAVEL. 

ish tongue, and to exchange the indifference and reserve 6} 
Norway for the friendly, genial, courteous manner of Swed- 
en. What I have said about the formality and affectation 
of manners, and the rigidity of social etiquette, in the chap- 
ters relating to Stockholm, was meant to apply especially to 
the capital. Far be it from me to censure that natural and 
spontaneous courtesy which is a characteristic of the whole 

eople. The more I see of the Swedes, the more I^am con- 
vinced that there is no kinder, simpler, and honester people 
in the world. With a liberal common school system, a fair- 
er representation, and release from the burden of a state 
church, they would develope rapidly and nobly. 

Our voyage from Gottenburg to Carlstad, on the Wener 
Lake, had but one noteworthy point — the Palls of Troll- 
h&tten. Even had I not not been fresh from the Riukan- 
Foss, which was still flashing in my memory, I should have 
been disappointed in this renowned cataract. It is not a 
single fall, but four successive descents, within the distance 
of half a mile, none of them being over twenty feet in per- 
pendicular height. The Toppo Fall is the only one which 
at all impressed me, and that principally through its re- 
markable form. The huge mass of the Gotha River, 
squeezed between two rocks, slides down a plane with an 
inclination of about 50°, strikes a projecting rock at the 
bottom, and takes an upward curve, flinging tremendous 
volumes of spray, or rather broken water, into the air. The 
bright emerald face of the watery plane is covered with a 
network of silver threads of shifting spray, and gleams oi 
pale blue and purple light play among the shadows of the 

rising globes of foam below. 



TRAMP THROUGH WERMELAND AND DAI.ECARLIA. 40? 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

A TRAMP THROUGH WERMELAND AND DALECARLIA. 

On leaving Carlstadour route lay northward up the val- 
ley of the Klar Elv, in the province of- Wermeland, and 
thence over the Tiills ; by way of Westerdale, in Dalecarlia, 
to the head of the Siljan Lake. The greater part of thi3 
region is almost unknown to travellers^ and belongs to the 
poorest and wildest parts of Sweden. We made choice of 
it for this reason, that we might become acquainted with 
the people in their true character, and compare them with 
the same class in Norway. Our heavy luggage had all been 
Bent on to Stockholm, in the charge of an Irish friend, and 
we retained no more than could be carried easily in two 
packs, as we anticipated being obliged to perform part of the 
journey on foot. 

It rained in torrents during the day we spent in Carl- 
stad, and some lumber merchants of Gottenburg, who were 
on their way to Fryxendal, to superintend the getting down 
of their rafts, predicted that the deluge would last an entire 
month. There was always a month of rainy weather at 
this season they said, and we had better give up our pro* 
posed journey. We trusted to our combined good luck 



408 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

however, and wero not deceived, for, with the exception of 
two days, we had charming weather during the remainder 
of our stay in Sweden. Having engaged a two-horse cart 
for the first post-station, we left Carlstad on the morning 
of the 11th of September. The clouds were still heavy, but 
gradually rolled into compacter masses, giving promise of 
breaking away. The city is built upon a little island at 
the head of the lake, whence we crossed to the mainland by 
a strong old bridge. Our road led eastward through a 
slightly undulating country, where broad woods of fir and 
birch divided the large, well cultivated farms. The gards, 
or mansions, which we passed, with their gardens and orna- 
mental shrubbery, gave evidence of comfort and competence. 
The people were in the harvest-fields, cutting oats, which 
they piled upon stakes to dry. Every one we met saluted 
us courteously, with a cheerful and friendly air, which was 
all the more agreeable by contrast with the Norwegian re- 
serve. 

At the station, Prestegard, we procured a good breakfast 
of ham, eggs, and potatoes, and engaged two carts to take 
us further. We now turned northward over a lovely rolling 
country, watered with frequent streams, — a land of soft out- 
lines, of woods and swelling knolls, to which the stately old 
houses gave an expression of contentment and household 
happiness. At Deye we left our carts, shouldered our packs, 
and trudged off on foot up the valley of the Klar Elv, which 
is here a broad lazy stream, filled with tens of thousands 
of pine-logs, waiting to be carried down to the Wener by 
the first freshet. The scenery charmed us by its rich and 
^uiet beauty ; it was without grand or striking features, buf 



A TR\MP THROUGH WERMELAND AND DALECARLLA. 409 

gently undulating, peaceful, and home-like. We found 
walking very fatiguing in the hot sun, which blazed upon 
us all the afternoon with a summer heat. The handsome 
residences and gardens, which we occasionally passed, gave 
evidence of taste and refinement in their possessors, and 
there was a pleasant grace in the courteous greetings of the 
country people whom we met. Towards evening we reached 
a post-station, and were tired enough to take horses again. 
It was after dark before we drew up at Ohlsater, in the 
heart of Wermeland. Here we found a neat, comfortable 
room, with clean beds, and procured a supper of superb 
potatoes. The landlord was a tall, handsome fellow, whose 
friendly manners, and frank face, breathing honesty and 
kindness in every lineament, quite won my heart. Were 
there more such persons in the world, it would be a pleasant* 
er place of residence. 

We took horses and bone-shattering carts in the morning, 
for a distance of thirteen miles up the valley of the Klar 
Elv. The country was very picturesque and beautiful, well 
cultivated, and quite thickly settled. The wood in the shel- 
tered bed of the valley was of remarkably fine growth ; the 
birch trees were the largest I ever saw, some of them being 
over one hundred feet in height. Comfortable residences, 
with orchards and well-kept gardens attached, were quite 
frequent, and large saw-mills along the river, which in some 
places was entirely concealed by floating rafts of lumber, 
gave an air of industry and animation to the landscape. In 
one place the road was spanned, for a considerable distance. 
with triumphal arches of foliage. I inquired the meaning 
nf this display of the boy who accompanied us. " Why,* 



410 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

Baid he, " there was a wedding a week ago, at the herregard 
(gentleman's residence) ; the young Herr got married, and 
these arches were put up for him and his bride." The herre- 
gard, which we passed soon afterwards, was an imposing 
mansion, upon an eminence overlooking the valley. Be- 
side it was a jernbruk, or iron- works, from which a tram 
way, some miles in length, led to the mines. 

Resuming our knapsacks, we walked on up the valley. 
The hills on either side increased in height, and gloomed 
darkly under a threatening sky. The aspect of the country 
gradually became wilder, though, wherever there was culti- 
vation, it bore the same evidence of thrift and prosperity. 
After a steady walk of four hours, we reached the village of 
Rada, where our road left the beautiful Klar Elv, and struck 
northwards towards Westerdal, in Dalecarlia. We procured 
a dinner of potatoes and bacon, with excellent ale, enjoying, 
meanwhile, a lovely view over a lake to the eastward, which 
stretched away for ten miles between the wooded hills. The 
evening was cold and raw : we drove through pine-woods, 
around the head of the lake, and by six o'clock reached Asp- 
lurid, a miserable little hamlet on a dreary hill. The post- 
station was a forlorn cottage with a single room, not of the 
most inviting appearance. I asked if we could get quarters 
foi the night. " If you will stay, of course you can" said 
the occupant, an old woman ; " but there is no bed, and I 
can get you horses directly to go on." It was a distance of 
thirteen miles to the next station, but we yielded to the old 
woman's hint, and set forward. The road led through woods 
which seemed interminable. We were jammed together into 
% little two-wheeled cart, with the boy between our knees 



A TRAMP THROUGH WERMELAND AND DALECARMA. 4|J 

He seemed much disinclined to hurry the horse, but soon 
fell asleep, and one of us held him by the collar to prevent 
his tumbling out, while the other took the lines, and urged 
jii our slow beast. The night was so dark that we had great 
difficulty in keeping the road, but towards eleven o'clock \v 
emerged from the woods, and found, by shaking the boy 
that we were approaching the station at last. This was a 
little place called Laggasen, on the nothern frontier of 
VVermeland. 

Everybody had gone to bed in the hut at which we 
stopped. We entered the kitchen, which was at the same 
time the bed-room, and aroused the inmates, who consisted 
of a lonely woman, with two or three children. She got up 
in a very scanty chemise, lit a wooden splinter, and inspected 
us, and, in answer to our demand for a bed, informed us that 
we would have to lie upon the floor. We were about to do 
this, when she said we could get good quarters at the Nore, 
on the top of the hill. Her earnestness in persuading us to 
go made me suspect that she merely wanted to get rid of us, 
and I insisted that she should accompany us to show the way. 
After some hesitation she consented, and we set out. We 
first crossed a broad swamp, on a road made of loose logs, 
then climbed a hill, and trudged for some distance across 
stubble-fields, until my patience was quite worn out, and 
Braisted made use of some powerful maritime expressions. 
Finally, we reached a house, which we entered without more 
ado. The close, stifling atmosphere, and the sound of hard 
breathing on all 3ides, showed us that a whole family had 
been for some hours asleep there. Our guide thumped on the 
ioor, and hailed, and at length somebody awoke. " Can you 



412 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

give two travellers a bed ? n she asked. " No/ ? was the 
comfortable reply, followed by the yell of an aroused baby, 
and the noises of the older children. We retreated at once, 
and opened a battery of reproaches on the old woman for 
naving brought us on a fool's errand. " There is Ohlsen's, 5 '' 
fehc replied, very quietly, "I think I can get you a bed 
there." Whereupon we entered another house in the same 
unceremonious manner, but with a better result. A plump 
good natured housewife jumped out of bed, went to an op- 
posite door, and thumped upon it. " Lars !" she cried, 
" come out of that this minute !" As we entered, with a 
torch of dry fir, Lars, who proved to be a middle-aged man, 
got out of bed sleepily, picked up his clothes and marched 
off. The hostess then brought clean sheets and pillow-cases, 
and by midnight we were sweetly and blissfully stowed 
away together in the place vacated by poor Lars. 

Nothing could exceed the kindness and courtesy of the 
good people in the morning. The hostess brought us coffee, 
and her son went off to get us a horse and cart. She would 
make no charge, as we had had so little, she said, and was 
quite grateful for the moderate sum I gave her. We had a 
wild road over hills, covered with pine forests, through the 
breaks in which we now and then caught a glimpse of a 
long lake to the westward, shining with a steel-blue gleam 
*n the morning sun. There were but few clearings along 
the road, and miles frequently intervened without a sign of 
human habitation. We met, however, with great numbers 
of travellers, mostly farmers, with laden hay-carts. It was 
Sunday morning, and I could not help contrasting these 
people with those we had seen on the same day three week? 



a TRAMP THROUGH WERMELAND ANi> DALECARLIA. 413 

previous whilst crossing the Fille Fjeld. Here, every one 
had evidently been washed and combed : the men wore clean 
shirts and stockings, and the women chemises of snowy 
whiteness under their gay boddices. They were mostly 
Dalecarlians, in the picturesque costume of the province. 
We entered Dalecarlia on this stage, and the frank fresh 
faces of these people, their unmistakeable expression of hon- 
esty and integrity, and the hearty cordiality of their greet- 
ings, welcomed us delightfully to the storied ground oi 
Sweden. 

Towards noon we reached the village of Tyngsjo, a little 
settlement buried in the heart of the wild woods. A mile 
or two of the southern slope of a hill had been cleared away, 
and over this a number of dark wooden farmhouses were 
scattered, with oats and potato-fields around them. An odd 
little church stood in midst, and the rich swell of a hymn, 
sung by sweet Swedish voices, floated to us over the fields as 
we drove up to the post-station. The master, a tall, slender 
man, with yellow locks falling upon his shoulders, and a face 
which might be trusted with millions, welcomed us with a 
fine antique courtesy, and at once stmt off for horses. In a 
little while three farmers came, saluting us gracefully, and 
standing bareheaded while they spoke to us. One of them, 
who wore a dark brown jacket and knee-breeches, with a 
clean white shirt and stockings, had a strikingly beautiful 
head. The face was a perfect oval, the eyes large and dark, 
and the jet-black hair, parted on the forehead, fell in silky 
waves upon his shoulders. He was as handsome and grace- 
ful as one of Vandyk's cavaliers, and showed the born gen- 
tleman in his demeanour. He proposed that we should tak$ 



414 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

one horse, as it could be gotten without delay, while twc 
(which the law obliged us to take and pay for, if the farmers 
chose), would have detained us an hour. As the women were 
in church, the post-master himself cooked us some freshly- 
dug potatoes, which, with excellent butter, he set before us 
•' I have a kind of ale," said he, " which is called porter ; if 
you will try it, perhaps you will like it." It was, in reality, 
so good, that we took a second bottle with us for refreshment 
cn the road. When I asked how much we should pay, he 
Baid: "I don't think you should pay anything, there was so 
little." " Well," said I, " It is worth at least half a rigs- 
daler." u Oh, but that may be too much," he answered, 
hesitatingly. 

Our postillion was a fine handsome fellow, so rosy and 
robust that it made one feel stronger and healthier to sit 
beside him. He did not spare the horse, which was a big, 
capable animal, and we rolled along through endless forests 
of fir and pine as rapidly as the sandy road would allow. 
After we had gone about eight miles he left us, taking a 
shorter foot-path through the woods. We guessed at our 
proper direction, sometimes taking the wrong road, but 
finally, after two hours or more, emerged from the woods 
into Westerdal, one of the two great valleys from which 
Dalecarlia (Dalarne, or The Dales) takes its name. The 
day was magnificent, clear, and with a co' 1 d north-east wind, 
resembling the latter part of October at home. The broad, 
level valley, with its fields and clustered villages, lay before 
us in the pale, cold autumnal sunshine, with low blue hills 
bounding it in the distance. We met many parties in carts 
either returning from church, or on their way to visit neigh- 



a TRAMP THROUGH WERMELAND AND DALECARLIA. 415 

bours. All were in brilliant Sunday costume, the men in 
blue jackets and knee-breeches, with vests of red or some 
other brilliant colour, and the women with gay embroidered 
boddices, white sleeves, and striped petticoats of blue, red 
brown, and purple, and scarlet stockings. Some of them 
wore, in addition, an outer jacket of snowy sheepskin, with 
elaborate ornamental stitch- work on the back. Their faces 
were as frank and cheerful as their dresses were tidy, and 
they all greeted us with that spontaneous goodness of heart 
which recognises a brother in every man. We had again 
taken a wrong road, and a merry party carefully set us 
right again, one old lady even proposing to leave her friends 
and accompany us, for fear we should go astray again. 

We crossed the Westerdal by a floating bridge, and to- 
wards sunset reached the inn of Ragsveden, our destination. 
It was a farmer's gard, standing a little distance off the 
road. An entrance through one of the buildings, closed 
with double doors, admitted us into the courtyard, a hollow 
square, surrounded with two story wooden dwellings, painted 
dark red. There seemed to be no one at home, but after 
knocking and calling for a time an old man made his ap- 
pearance. He was in his second childhood, but knew enough 
to usher us into the kitchen and ask us to wait for the land- 
lord's arrival. After half an hour our postillion arrived 
with four or five men in their gayest and trimmest costume, 
the landlord among them. They immediately asked who 
and what we were, and we were then obliged to give them 
an account of all our travels. Their questions were shrewd 
find intelligent, and their manner of asking, coupled as it 
a*as with their native courtesy, showed an earnest desire foi 



\[{j NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

information, which we were most willing to gratify. By 
and by the hostess came, and we were ushered into a verj 
pleasant room, with two beds, and furnished with a supper 
of fresh meat, potatoes, and mead. The landlord and two 
or three of the neighbours sat with us before the fire until 
we were too sleepy to answer any more questions. A more 
naturally independent and manly bearing I have never seen 
than that of our host. He was a tall, powerful man, of 
middle age, with very handsome features, which were soft- 
ened but not weakened in expression by his long blond hair, 
parted on his forehead. He had the proper pride which be- 
longs to the consciousness of worth, and has no kinship with 
empty vanity. " We have come to Dalecarlia to see the 
descendants of the people who gave Gustavus Vasa his 
throne," said I, curious to see whether he would betray any 
signs of flattered pride. His blue eye flashed a little, as he 
sat with his hands clasped over one knee, gazing at the fire, 
a light flush ran over his temples — but he said nothing, 
Some time ago a proposition was made to place, a portrait 
of Gustavus Vasa in the church at Mora. " No," said the 
Dalecarlians, " we will not have it : we do not need any 
picture to remind us of what our fathers have done." 

The landlady was a little woman, who confessed to being 
forty-nine years old, although she did not appear to be more 
than forty. " I have had a great deal of headache," said 
she, " and I look much older than I am." Her teeth were 
superb, as were those of all the women we saw. I do not sup- 
pose a tooth-brush is known in the valley ; yet the teeth 
one sees are perfect pearls. The use of so much sour milk 
h said to preserve them. There was a younger person in 



A TRAMP THROUGH VVERMELAND AND DALECARLIA. 417 

the house, whom we took to be a girl of sixteen, but who 
proved to be the son's wife, a woman of twenty-six, and the 
mother of two or three children. The Dalecarlian3 marry 
young when they are able, but even in opposite cases they 
arely commit any violation of the laws of morality. In- 
stances are frequent, I was told, where a man and woman, 
unable to defray the expense of marriage, live together for 
years in a state of mutual chastity, until they have saved a 
sum sufficient to enable them to assume the responsibilities 
of married life. I know there is no honester, and I doubt 
whether there is a purer, people on the earth than these 
Dalecarlians. 

We awoke to another glorious autumnal day. The val- 
ley was white with frost in the morning, and the air delici- 
ously keen and cold ; but after sunrise heavy white vapoura 
arose from the spangled grass, and the day gradually grew 
milder. I was amused at the naive curiosity of the land- 
lady and her daughter-in-law, who came into our room very 
early, that they might see the make of our garments and 
our manner of dressing. As they did not appear to be 
conscious of any impropriety, we did not think it necessary 
to feel embarrassed. Our Lapland journey had taught us 
habits of self-possession under such trying circumstances. 
We had coffee, paid an absurdly small sum for our enter- 
tainment, and took a cordial leave of the good people. A 
boy of fifteen, whose eyes, teeth and complexion kept my 
admiration on the stretch during the whole stage, drove U8 
through unbroken woods to Skamhed, ten miles further down 
the valley. Here the inn was a little one story hut, miser- 
able to behold externally but containing a neat guest's room 



418 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

and moreover, as we discovered in the course of time — a 
good breakfast. While we were waiting there, a man caine 
up who greeted us in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, on 
learning that we came from America. a Are you hot afraid 
tc travel so far from home ?' ; he asked : u how could yon 
cross the great sea ?" " Oh," I answered, " there is no more 
danger in one part of the world than another." u Yes/' 
said he, u God is as near on the water as on the land" — un • 
consciously repeating the last words of Sir Humphrey Gil- 
bert : " Christ walked upon the waves and quieted them, 
and he walks yet, for them that believe in Him." Here- 
upon he began repeating some hymns, mingled with texts of 
Scripture, which process he continued until we became 
heartily tired. I took him at a venture, for an over-enthu- 
siastic Ldsare, or " Reader," the name given to the Swedish 
dissenters. 

We had a station of twenty three miles before us, to the 
village of Landbobyn. which lies in the wooded wilderness 
between Osterdal and Westerdal. Our postillion, a fine 
young fellow of twenty-two, over six feet in height, put on 
his best blue jacket and knee-breeches, with a leather apron 
reaching from his shoulders to below his knees. This is an 
article worn by almost all Dalecarlians for the purpose of 
saving their clothes while at work, and gives them an awk- 
ward and ungraceful air. This fellow, in spite of a little 
fear at the bare idea, expressed his willingness to go with 
ns all over the world, but the spirit of wandering was evi- 
dently so easy to be kindled in him, that I rather discour- 
aged him. We had a monotonous journey of five hours 
through a forest of pine, fir, and birch, in which deer and 



A TRAMP THROUGH WERMELAND AND DALECARLIA. 4J9 

elk are frequently met with; while the wolf and the bear 
haunt its remoter valleys. The ground was but slightly 
undulating, and the scenery in general was as tame as it 
was savage. 

Landbobyn was a wretched hamlet on the banks of $ 
stream, with a few cleared fields about it. As the sun had 
not yet set, we determined to push on to Kettbo, eight or 
ten miles further, and engaged a boy to pilot us through the 
woods. The post-station was a miserable place, where we 
found it impossible to get anything to eat. I sat down and 
talked with the family while our guide recruited himself 
with a large dish of thick sour milk. " Why do you travel 
about the earth ?" asked his mother: "is it that you may 
spy out the poverty of the people and see how miserably 
they live ?" " No," said I " it is that I may become ac- 
quainted with the people, whether they are poor or not." 
* But," she continued, " did you ever see a people poorer than 
we ?" " Often," said I ; " because you are contented, and no 
one can be entirely poor who does not complain." She shook 
her head with a sad smile and said nothing. 

Our guide poled us across the river in a rickety boat, and 
then plunged into the woods. He was a tall, well grown 
boy of fifteen or sixteen, with a beautiful oval face, long fair 
hair parted in the middle and hanging upon his shoulders, 
and a fine, manly, resolute expression. With his jacket, 
girdle, knee-breeches, and the high crowned and broad brim- 
med felt hat he wore, he reminded me strongly of the picture 
of Gustavus Vasa in his Dalecarlian disguise, in the cathe- 
dral of Upsala. He was a splendid walker, and quite put 
roe, old pedestrian aa I am, out of countenance. The foot- 



<1 20 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

path we followed was terribly rough ; we stumbled ovei 
stock and stone, leaped fallen trees, crossed swamps on tus« 
socks of spongy moss, and climbed over heaps of granite 
boulders : yet, while we were panting and exhausted with 
ur exertions to keep pace with him, he walked onward as 
quietly and easily as if the smoothest meadow turf were 
under his feet. I was quite puzzled by the speed he kepi 
up on such a hard path, without seeming to put forth any 
extra strength. At sunset he pointed out some clearings on 
a hill side over the tree tops, a mile or two ahead, as our 
destination. Dusk was gathering as we came upon a pretty 
lake, with a village scattered along its hilly shore. The 
post-station, however, was beyond it, and after some delay 
the boy procured a boat and rowed us across. Telling us to 
go up the hill and we should find the inn, he bade us good 
bye and set out on his return. 

We soon reached a gard, the owner whereof, after satis- 
fying his curiosity concerning us by numerous questions, 
informed us that the inn was still further. After groping 
about in the dark for awhile, we found it. The landlord 
and his wife were sitting before the fire, and seemed, I 
thought, considerably embarrassed by our arrival. There 
was no bed, they said, and they had nothing that we could 
eat ; their house was beyond the lake, and they only came 
over to take charge of the post-station when their turn ar- 
rived. We were devoured with hunger and thirst, and told 
them we should be satisfied with potatoes and a place on the 
floor. The wife's brother, who came in soon afterwards, was 
thereupon despatched across the lake to bring coffee for us, 
and the pleasant good-wife put our potatoes upon the fire to 



A TRAMP THROUGH VVERMELAND AND DALECARTIA. 42) 

boil. We lit our pipes, meanwhile, and sat before the fire, 
talking with our host and some neighbours who came in. 
They had much to ask about America, none of them having 
ever before seen a native of that country. Their questions 

elated principally to the cost of living, to the value of 
labour, the price of grain, the climate and productions, and 
the character of our laws. They informed me that the 
usual wages in Dalecarlia were 24 skillings (13 cents) a day, 
and that one tunne (about 480 lbs.) of rye cost 32 rigsdaler 
($8.37 J). " No doubt you write descriptions of your travels T 
asked the landlord. I assented. "And then, perhaps, you 
make books of them ?" he continued : whereupon one of the 
neighbours asked, '-But do you get any money for your 
books ?" 

The potatoes were finally done, and they, with some 
delicious milk, constituted our supper. By this time the 
brother had returned, bringing with him coffee, a pillow, 
and a large coverlet made entirely of cat-skins. A deep 
bed of hay was spread upon the floor, a coarse linen sheet 
thrown over it, and, with the soft fur covering, we had a 
sumptuous bed. About midnight we were awakened by an 
arrival. Two tailors, one of them hump-backed, on their 
way to Wermeland, came in, with a tall, strong woman as 
postillion. The fire was rekindled, and every thing which 
the landlord had extracted from us was repeated to tbe new 
comers, together with a very genial criticism upon our per- 
*K>nal appearance and character. After an hour or two, 
more hay was brought in and the two tailors and the pos- 

jillioness lay lown side by side. We had barely got to # 
sleep again, when there was another arrival. " I am the 



422 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

post-girl," said a female voice. Hereupon everybody woke 
up, and the story of the two foreign travellers was told over 
again. In the course of the conversation I learned that tha 
girl carried the post twenty English miles once a week, for 
which she received 24 rigs ($6.25) annually. " It is a hard 
business," said the hump-backed tailor. "Yes; but I am 
obliged to do it," answered the girl. After her departure 
we were not again disturbed, and managed to get some sleep 
at last. 

We all completed our toilettes in the same room, without, 
the least embarrassment ; and, with a traveller's curiosity, 
I may be pardoned for noticing the general bodily cleanli- 
ness of my various bed-fellows, especially as the city Swedes 
are in the habit of saying that the country people are 
shockingly dirty. We had coffee, and made arrangements 
with the girl who had brought the tailors to take us back in 
her cart. Our host would make no charge for the bed, and 
next to nothing for our fare, so I put a bank-note in the 
hand of little Pehr, his only child, telling him to take care 
of it, and spend it wisely when he grew up. The delight 
of the good people knew no bounds. Pehr must hold up 
his little mouth to be kissed, again and again ; the mother 
shook us warmly by the hand, and the father harnessed his 
horse and started with us. May the blessing of God be 
upon all poor, honest, and contented people! 

Our road led between wooded hills to the Siljan-Forss, a 
large iron-foundry upon a stream which flows into the Siljan 
Lake. It was a lovely morning, and our postillion who was 
a woman of gocd sense and some intelligence, chatted with 
me the whole way. She was delighted to find that we could 



A TRAMP THROUGH WERMELAND AND DALECARLIA. 423 

so easily make ourselves understood. "When I saw yon 
first in the night," said she, " I thought you must certainly 
be Swedes. All the foreigners I saw in Stockholm had 
something dark and cloudy in their countenances, but both 
of you have shining faces." She questioned me a great dea 
about the sacred localities of Palestine, and about the state 
of religion in America., She evidently belonged to the 
Ldsare, who, she stated, were very numerous in Dalecarlia. 
* It is a shame," said she, " that we poor people are obliged 
vO pay so much for the support of the Church, whether we 
belong to it or not. Our taxes amount to 40 rigs yearly, 
ten of which, in Mora parish, go to the priest. They say he 
has an income of half a rigs every hour of his life. King 
Oscar wishes to make religion free, and so it ought to be, 
but the clergy are all against him, and the clergy control the 
Bondestand (House of Peasants), and so he can do nothing." 
The woman was thirty-one years old, and worn with hard 
labour. 1 asked her if she was married, " No," she an- 
swered, with a deep sigh, looking at the betrothal-ring on 
her finger. " Ah," she continued, u we are all poor, Sweden 
is a poor country ; we have only iron and timber, not grain, 
and cotton, and silk, and sugar, like other countries. " 

As we descended towards the post-station of Vik we caught 
a glimpse of the Siljan Lake to the south, and the tall 
tower of Mora Church, far to the eastward. At Vik, where 
we found the same simple and honest race of people, w 
parted with the post'illioness and with our host of Kettbo 
who thanked us again in Pehr's name, as he shook hands foi 
the last time. We now had fast horses, and a fine road 
ov tf a long wooded hill, which was quite covered with the 



424 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

lingon, or Swedish cranberry. From the further slope we 
at last looked down upon Mora, at the head of the Siljan 
Lake, in the midst of a broad and fertile valley. Ten miles 
to the eastward arose the spire of Orsa, and southward, on 
n island in the lake, the tall church of Solleron. tt Yon 
can see three churches at once," said our postillion with 
great pride. So we could, and also the large, stately inn 
of Mora — a most welcome sight to us, after rive days on po- 
tato diet. 



LAST DAYS IN THE NORTH. 425 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

LAST DAYS IN THE NORTH. 

Mora, in Dalecarlia, is classic ground. It was here thai 
Gustavus Vasa first harangued the people, and kindled that 
spark of revolution, which in the end swept the Danes from 
Sweden. In the cellar of a house which was pointed out to 
us, on the southern shore of the Siljan Lake, he lay hidden 
three days ; in the barn of Ivan Elfssen he threshed corn, 
disguised as a peasant ; and on the road by which we had 
travelled from Kettbo, in descending to the lake, we had 
Been the mounds of stone, heaped over the Danes, who were 
slain in his first victorious engagement. This district is 
considered, also, one of the most beautiful in Sweden. It 
has, indeed, a quiet, tranquil beauty, which gradually grows 
upon the eye, so that if one is not particularly aroused on 
first acquaintance, he at least carries away a delightful 
picture in his memory. But in order to enjoy properly any 
Swedish landscape whatsoever, one should not be too fresh 
from Norway. 

After dinner we called at the " Parsonage of Mora," which 
has given Miss Fredrika Bremer the materials for one oi 
her stories of Swedish life. 



%£6 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

The Prosty Herr Kjelstrom, was not at home, but hia 
wife received us with great cordiality, and insisted upon oui 

remaining to tea. The magister , who called at the 

same time, gave us some information concerning the por< 
phyry quarries at Elfdal, which we were debating whether 
we should visit. Very little is doing at present, not more 
than ten men in all being employed, and in his opinion we 
would hardly be repaid for the journey thither ; so we deter 
mined to turn southward again, and gradually make our way 
to Stockholm/ Fru Kjelstrom was one of the few Swedes I 
met, who was really an enthusiastic admirer of Tegner ; she 
knew by heart the greater part of his " Frithiof s Saga." 

The morning after our arrival in Mora dawned dark and 
cloudy, with a wailing wind and dashes of rain. There 
were threats of the equinoctial storm, and we remembered 
the prediction of the lumber merchants in Carlstad. During 
the night, however, a little steamer belonging to an iron 
company arrived, offering us the chance of a passage down 
the lake to Leksand. While we were waiting on the shore 
the magister, whc had come to see us depart, gave me some 
information about the Lasare. He admitted that there were 
many in Dalecarlia, and said that the policy of persecution, 
which was practised against them in the beginning, was now 
dropped. They were, in general, ignored by the clerical 
authorities. He looked upon the movement rather as a 
transient hallucination than as a permanent secession frora 
the Established Church, and seemed to think that it wouid 
gradually disappear, if left to itself. He admitted that the 
king was in favour of religious liberty, but was so guarded 



LAST DAYS FN THE NORTH 427 

in sjeaking of the subject that 1 did not ascertain his own 
views. 

We had on board about sixty passengers, mostly peasants 
from Upper Elfdel, bound on a peddling excursion through 
Sweden, with packs of articles which they manufacture at 
home. Their stock consisted mostly of pocket-books, purses, 
boxes, and various small articles of ornament and use. The 
little steamer was so well laden with their solid forms that 
ghe settled into the aud, and the crew had hard poling to 
get her off. There was service in Mora Church, and the 
sound of the organ and choir was heard along the lake. 
Many friends and relatives of the wandering Elfdalians 
were on the little wooden pier to bid them adieu. " God's 
peace be with thee !" was a parting salutation which I heard 
many times repeated. At last we got fairly clear and pad- 
dled off through the sepia-coloured water, watching the 
softly undulating shores, which soon sank low enough to 
show the blue, irregular hills in the distant background. 
Mora spire was the central point in the landscape,. and re 
main'ed visible until we had nearly reached the other end of 
the lake. The Siljan has a length of about twenty-five 
miles, with a breadth of from six to ten. The shores are 
hilly, but only moderately high, except in the neighborhood 
of Rattvik, where they were bold and beautiful. The soft 
slopes on either hand were covered with the yellow pillars 
of the ripe oats, bound to upright stakes to dry. From 
every. village rose a tall midsummer pole, yet laden with the 
withered garlands of Sweden's fairest festival, and bearing 
aloft its patriotic symbol, the crossed arrows of Dalecarlia 
The threatened storm broke and dispersed as we left Mora, 



428 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

and strong sun-bursts between the clouds flashed across 
these pastoral pictures. 

Soon after we left, a number of the men and women col 
lee ted together on the after -deck, and commenced singing 
hymns, which occupation they kept up with untiring fervour 
during the whole voyage. The young girls were remark- 
able for weight and solidity of figure, ugliness of face, and 
sweetness of voice. The clear, ringing tones, with a bell- 
like purity and delicious timbre, issued without effort from 
between their thick, beefy lips, and there was such a con- 
trast between sound and substance, that they attracted my 
attention more than I should have thought possible. Some 
of the men, who had heard what we were, entered into con- 
versation with us. I soon discovered that they were all 
Lasare, and one of them, who seemed to exercise a kind of 
leadership, and who was a man of considerable intelligence, 
gave me a good deal of information about the sect. They 
met together privately, he said, to read the New Testament, 
trusting entirely to its inspired pages for the means of en- 
lightenment as to what was necessary for the salvation of 
their souls. The clergy stood between them and the Voice 
of God, who had spoken not to a particular class, but to all 
mankind. They were liable to a fine of 200 rigs ($52) 
every time they thus met together, my informant had once been 
obliged to pay it himself. Nevertheless, he said they were 
sot interfered with so much at present, except that they were 
obliged to pay tithes, as before. " The king is a good 
man," he continued, "he means well, and would do us jus* 
tice if he had the power ; but the clergy are all against 
him. and his own authority is limited. Now they are 



LAST DAIS IN THE NORTH. 



4%q 



going to bring the question of religious freedom before the 
Diet, but we have not the least hope that anything will be 
done." He also stated — what, indeed, must be evident to 
every observing traveller — that the doctrines of the Lasare 
had spread very rapidly, and that their numbers were con- 
tinually increasing. 

The creation of such a powerful dissenting body is a 
thing that might have been expected. The Church, in 
Sweden, had become a system of forms and ceremonies. 
The pure spiritualism of Swedenborg, in the last century, 
was a natural and gigantic rebound to the opposite extreme, 
but, from its lofty intellectuality, was unfitted to be the 
nucleus of a popular protest. Meanwhile, the souls of the 
people starved on the dry husks which were portioned out 
to them. They needed genuine nourishment. They are 
an earnest, reflective race, and the religious element is deeply 
implanted in their nature. The present movement, so much 
like Methodism in many particulars, owes its success to the 
same genial and all-embracing doctrine of an impartial visi- 
tation of Divine grace, bringing max. into nearer and tenderer 
relations to his Maker. In a word, it is the democratic, 
opposed to the aristocratic principle in religion. It is fash- 
ionable in Sweden to sneer at the Lasare- their numbers, 
character, and sincerity are very generally under-estimated. 
No doubt there is much that is absurd and grotesque in their 
services; no doubt they run into violent and unchristian ex- 
tremes, and often merely substitute fanaticism for spiritual 
apathy ; but I believe they will in the end be the instrument 
)f bestowing religious liberty upon Sweden. 

There was no end to the desire of th ^se people for know- 
19* 



430 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

ledge. They overwhelmed us with questions about on* 
country, its government, laws, climate, productions and 
geograj hical extent. Next to America, they seemed most 
interested in Palestine, and considered me as specially 
favoured by Providence in having beheld Jerusalem. They 
all complained of the burdens which fall upon a poor man 
in Sweden, in the shape of government taxes, tithes, and 
the obligation of supporting a portion of the army, who are 
distributed through the provinces. Thus Dalecarlia, they 
informed me, with a population of 132,000, is obliged to 
maintain 1200 troops The tax on land corresponded very 
nearly with the statement made by my female postillion the 
previous day. Dalecarlia, its mines excepted, is one of the 
poorest of the Swedish provinces. Many of its inhabitants 
are obliged to wander forth every summer, either to take 
service elsewhere, or to dispose of the articles they fabricate 
at home, in order, after some years of this irregular life, to 
possess enough to enable them to pass the rest of their days 
humbly at home. Our fellow-passengers told me of several 
who had emigrated to America, where they had spent five 
or six years. They grew home-sick at last, and returned to 
their chilly hills. But it was not the bleak fir- woods, the 
oat-fields, or the wooden huts which they missed; it was 
the truth, the honesty, the manliness, and the loving tender- 
ness which dwdl in Dalecarlian hearts. 

We had a strong wind abeam, but our little steamer mad*: 
good progress down the lake. The shores contracted, and 
the white church of Leksand rose over the dark woods, and 
between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, we were moor- 
ed in the Dal River, where it issues from the Sijan. Thf 



LAST DAYS IN THE NORTH. 431 

Elfdal pedlers shouldered their immense packs ana set out 
bidding us a friendly adieu as we parted. After establish- 
ing ourselves in the little inn, where we procured a tolerable 
dinner, we called upon the Domprost Hvasser, to whom I 
had a letter from a countryman who made a pedestrian 
journey through Dalecarlia five years ago. The parsonage 
was a spacious building near the church, standing upon the 
brink of a lofty bank overlooking the outflow of the Dal. 
The Domprost, a hale, stout old man, with something irre- 
sistibly hearty and cheering in his manner, gave us both his 
hands and drew us into the room, on seeing that we were 
strangers. He then proceeded to read the letter. " Ho !" 
he exclaimed, " to think that he has remembered me all this 
time ! And he has not forgotten that it was just midsummer 
when he was here P Presently he went out, and soon re- 
turned with a basket in one hand and some plates in the 
other, which he placed before us and heaped with fine ripe 
cherries. "Now it is autumn," said he ; " it is no longer 
midsummer, but we have a little of the summer's fruit left." 
He presented us to his sister and daughter, and to two 
handsome young magisters, who assisted him in his par- 
ochial duties. 

We walked in the garden, which was laid out with some 
taste along the brow of the hill. A superb drooping birch, 
eighty feet in height, was the crowning glory of the place. 
The birch is the characteristic tree of Sweden, as the fir is 
of Norway, the beech of Denmark, the oak of England and 
Germany, the chestnut of Italy, and the palm of Egypt. 
Of nothern trees, there is none more graceful in outline, but 
m the cold, silvery hue of its foliage, summer can never find 



432 SOUTHERN TRAVEL 

her best expression. The parson had a neat little bowling 
alley, in a grove of pine ; on a projecting spur of the hill. 
He did not disdain secular recreations; his religion wa3 
cheerful and jubilant ; he had found something else in the 
Kible than the Lamentations of Jeremiah. There are sg 
many Christians who — to judge from the settled expression 
of their faces — suffer under their belief, that it is a com- 
fort to find those who see nothing heretical in the fullest 
and freest enjoyment of life. There was an apple-tree in 
the garden which was just bursting into blossoms for the 
second time. I called the Domprost's attention to it, re- 
marking, in a line from FrithioPs Saga: — u Hosten bjuder 
sin thron til varenP (Autumn offers his throne to the spring). 
"What!" he exclaimed in joyful surprise, "do you know 
Tegner ? n and immediately continued the quotation. 

There was no resisting the hospitable persuasions of thr 
family ; we were obliged to take supper and spend the even- 
ing with them. The daughter and the two rn agisters sang 
for us all the characteristic songs of Wermeland and Dale- 
carlia which they could remember, and I was more than ever 
charmed with the wild, simple, original character of th( 
native melodies of Sweden. They are mostly in the minor 
key, and some of them might almost be called monotonous; 
vet it is monotony, or rather simplicity, in the notation, 
which sticks to the memory. The longings, the regrets, the 
fidelity, and the tenderness of the people, find an echo in 
these airs, which have all the character of improvisationSj 
and rekindle in the heart of the hearer the passions they 
were intended to relieve. 

We at last took leave of the good old ma,n and his friendly 



LAS1 DAYS IN THE NORTH. 43i 

household. The night was dark and rainy, and the ma- 
gibters accompanied us to the inn. In the morning it was 
raining dismally, — a slow, cold, driving rain, which is tfa< 
climax of bad weather. We determined, however, to pusL 
onward as far as Fahlun, the capital of Dalecarlia, about 
Four Swedish miles distant. Our read was down the valley 
of the Dal Elv, which we crossed twice on floating bridges^ 
through a very rich, beautiful, and thickly settled country 
The hills were here higher and bolder than in Wi sterdal, 
dark with forests of fir and pine, and swept south-eastward 
in long ranges, leaving a broad, open valley for the river to 
wander in. This valley, from three to five miles in width, 
was almost entirely covered with enclosed fields, owing U 
which the road was barred with gates, and our progress was 
much delay^d thereby. The houses were neat and substan- 
tial, many of them with gardens and orchards attached, 
while the unusual timber o* the barns and granaries gave 
evidence of a more prosperous state of agriculture than we 
had seen since leaving the neighborhood of Carlstad. We 
pressed forward in the rain and raw wind, and reached Fah- 
lun towards evening, just in time to avoid a drenching 
storm. 

Of the celebrated copper-mines of Fahlun, some of whi«h 
have been worked for 600 years, we saw nothing. We took 
their magnitude and richness for granted, on the strength of 
the immense heaps of dross through which we drove on ap- 
proaching the town, and the desolate appearance of tL* ^sur- 
rounding country, whose vegetation has been for the nio&t, 
part destroyed by the fumes from the smelting works. In 
rmr sore an 1 sodden condition, we were in no humour to ga 



434 NORTHERN TRAVEL. 

sight seeing, and so sat comfortably by the stove, while the 
rain beat against the windows, and the darkness fell. The 
next morning brought us a renewal of the same weather, but 
we set out bravely in our open cart, and jolted over the 
nuddy roads with such perseverance, that we reached Hale- 
mora at night. The hills diminished in height as we pro 
ceeded southward, but the scenery retained its lovely pastoral 
character. My most prominent recollection of the day's 
travel, however, is of the number of gates our numb and 
blue-faced boy-postillions were obliged to jump down and 
open. 

From Hedemora, a journey of two days through the pro* 
vinces of Westeras and Uppland, brought us to Upsala. 
After leaving Dalecarlia and crossing the Dal River for the 
fifth and last time, the country gradually sank into those 
long, slightly rolling plains, which we had traversed last 
winter, between Stockholm and Gefle. Here villages were 
more frequent, but the houses had not the same air of thrift 
and comfort as in Dalecarlia. The population also changed 
in character, the faces we now saw being less bright, cheer- 
ful, and kindly, and the forms less tall and strongly knit 

We had very fair accommodations, at all the post-stations 
along the road, and found the; people everywhere honest and 
obliging. Still, I missed the noble simplicity which I had 
admired so much in the natives of Westerdal, and on the 
frontier of Wermeland, — the unaffected kindness of hear! 
which made me look upon every man as a friend. 

The large town of Sala, where we spent a night, was 
filled with fugitives from Upsala, where the cholera was 
making great ravages. The violence of the disease waf 



LAST DAYS IN THE NORTH. 435 

ivver by the time we arrived ; but the students, all of whom 
had left, had not yet returned, and the fine old place had a 
melancholy air. The first thing we saw on approaching it, 
was a funeral. Professor Bergfalk, who had remained at 
bis post, and to whom I had letters, most kindly gave me an 
entire day of his time. I saw the famous Codex argenteus, 
ji the library, the original manuscript of Frithiof s Saga, 
the journals of Swedenborg and binna3us, the Botanical Gar- 
den, and the tombs of Gustaviflf Vasa and John III. in the 
catnedral. But most interesting of all was our drive to 
Old Upsala, where we climbed upon the mound of Odin 
and drank mead out of the silver-mounted drinking horn 
from which Bernadotte, Oscar, and the whole royal family 
of Sweden, are in the habit of drinking when they make a 
pilgrimage to the burial place of the Scandinavian gods. 

A cold, pale, yellow light lay upon the landscape; the 
towers of Upsala Cathedral, and the massive front of the 
palace, rose dark against the sky, in the south-west; a chill 
autumnal wind blew over the plains, and the yellowing foliage 
of the birch drifted across the mysterious mounds, like those 
few golden leaves of poetry, which the modern bards of the 
North have cast- upon the grave of the grand, muscular r<» 
ligion of the earlier race. There was no melodious wailing 
in the wind, like that which proclaimed " Pan is dead V 
through the groves of Greece and Ionia ; but a cold rust- 
ling hiss, as if the serpent of Midgard were exulting over 
the ruin of Walhalla. But in the stinging, aromatic flootj 
of the amber-coloured mead, I drank to Odin, to Balder, and 
o Freja. 



|36 NORTHERN TRAVEL 

We reached Stockholm on the 22nd of September, in tin 
midst of a furious gale, accompanied with heavy squalls oi 
3now — the same in which the Russian line-of-battle ship 
K Lefort" foundered in the Gulf of Finland. In the mild, 
calm, sunny, autumn days which followed, the b3autiful chy 
charmed us more than ever, and I felt half inclined to take 
back all I had said against the place, during the dismal 
weather of last spring. The trees in the Djurgard and in 
the islands of Malar, were still in full foliage; the Dalecar- 
lian boatwomen plied their crafts in the outer harbour ; the 
little garden under the Norrbro was gay with music and 
lamps every evening ; and the brief and jovial summer life 
of the Swedes, so near its close, clung to the flying sunshine, 
that not a moment might be suffered to pass by unenjoyed. 

In another week we were standing on the deck of the Prus- 
sian steamer " Nagler" threading the rocky archipelago be- 
, tween Stockholm and the open Baltic on our way to Stettin, 
In leaving the North, after ten months of winter and sum- 
mer wanderings, and with scarce a hope of returning again, 
I found myself repeating, over and over again, the farewell 
oi Frithiof :— 

" Farvtit, Jfjtillar, 

Der dran bor ; 
J runohallar, 

Fdr v&ldig Thor ; 
J blaa sjoar, 

Jag kilnt sa v&l ; 
J sk&r och 6ar, 

F*rvitl,farval!" 



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